Regulation 444/98 – Disposition of Surplus Real Property
As the Commissioner has noted many times in his annual reports, investigation reports and follow-ups, enrolment is growing in Southern Ontario, and French-language secondary schools cannot cope with the demand.
Meanwhile, the English-language school boards have surplus or unused facilities. These buildings could meet the needs. But under Ontario Regulation 444/98, Disposition of Surplus Real Property, this cannot happen. The English-language boards can do what they want with those properties, because they own them.
In 2011, the Commissioner made a number of recommendations designed to remedy this situation. Since then, even though the Commissioner repeated his recommendations in his 2016 follow-up report,52 the Education Act still has not been amended.
In 2015, O. Reg. 444/98 underwent a review process and a series of amendments (effective September 1, 2016) with the aim of keeping school board properties within the public sphere.
The Commissioner’s office welcomes the amendments to the regulation. However, much remains to be done to facilitate the acquisition of school properties by French language school boards, especially in the GTA area.
52. Office of the French Language Services Commissioner, When the most elementary becomes secondary: Homework Incomplete – Follow-up on the report, Toronto, 2016.