It seemed like a simple enough question to answer...
"Given the constant drumbeat of serious concerns coming from parents about class sizes. Will you commit to revisiting your plan on smaller class sizes right now? Yes or no?" our reporter Hayley Cooper asked of Premier Doug Ford and Education Minister Stephen Lecce.
"Well, you know something, as a dad I get it. I have four girls that went through the system, I understand the concerns of the parents and our plan is the best plan in the entire country. My number one goal, what I lose sleep about, is making sure we have a safe environment for the kids to go back to class in the safest environment possible. And it's all about listening, it's all about flexibility. And we've shown that, right from the beginning of this pandemic, that we have to be flexible we have to be adaptable when this COVID changes - literally, this pandemic changes - every single day," Premier Ford expressed. "If we look back three months ago compared to where we are today, I think that the province - and when I say the province, I repeat it again, everyone, the 14 and a half million people - they've all worked together and we're just asking for everyone, including the parents, and the teachers union, and the school boards to work with us. I get it. I will do whatever it takes to make sure that kids are safe. I'm going to hand it over to the minister of education. Thank you.," Ford wrapped up.
Minister Lecce walked up to the podium and took it from there. "I think the premier sort of expressed a sentiment that we all share, you know, we're talking about our children and we understand the obligation we have to ensure it's a safe restart, to make sure that kids and our staff can get back to school in September. So let's reflect on what we're doing in Ontario and benchmark it nationally, because I think it's important for people to recognize how we are leading and what that really means in the context of class sizes, of staffing and testing, and all the other elements of our program to get kids back into school safely.
The first is we are the only province with a comprehensive masking strategy and [it's] good to see other provinces are looking to follow Ontario's lead. We're the only province that from grade four to 12 has a mandatory masking mandate and we are encouraging them for the younger years at the discretion of their parent[s]. We're the only province to ensure every child will have access to a free mask and likewise all staff will have PPE to ensure they are safe. We are the only province in this country to provide funding, over $20 million, to do really robust testing of asymptomatic students, particularly in high school where the risk is higher. We are the only province to have 500 public health nurses in schools. And within the context of classroom sizes in grades one to three we have the smallest, in the early years, the smallest classroom sizes in Canada, full stop. They're capped overwhelmingly at 20 students.
Now I appreciate, you know, in Toronto public, for example, calls for reducing those sizes and of course as you know, the province by design took immediate action for high schools, because based on the emerging evidence we've seen or understand as this evidence emerges, that the risk is a bit higher amongst older students than in younger students. That was the basis, it was on that principle, the we mandated an adapted model for high school, meaning the half [of] the amount of children in class, a maximum 15 kids, every other day, or half a day or every other week, depending on the board's preference. It was predicated on that belief to reduce the risk, to maximize spacing.
Now, for Toronto, for example, that has brought forth this plan yesterday, it is a balanced plan, they've been able to utilize contingency, in addition to the province who provided $55 million last month, net new for Toronto public alone. An additional $30 million last week, net new for that board. And in addition, they've looked at the rainy day fund, if you will, their contingency and together they've been able to bring forth a plan that can balance and that seems prudent. What I will say, though, is we're gonna continue to be there for boards, given the fact that we are the only province, again, to have allocated $30 million to hire more staff, to ensure distancing can be achieved.
And the overwhelming advice from medical experts that spoke to the government and advised the cabinet, is that if we can take a multitude of actions, a suite of mitigation, and layers of prevention to ultimately de-risk the circumstance, we're going to ensure that these kids are safe. That includes one metre distancing, plus masking, plus cleaning, the fact that we have $75 million set aside in our plan to hire 1,300 more custodians, to put $25 million of hand sanitizer and soap into schools. These are significant investments. When you compare our contribution on a per-capita basis and a per-pupil basis we lead Canada. I think what the Premier's also noted, is that we're going to be there for our boards, we're going to continue to be there for them, particularly in those areas, you know, for example in Toronto, where [those] higher risk zones, those sort of higher rates of transmission. We want to work very constructively, be solution-oriented. We're working with Toronto, Toronto Public Health, who we're meeting with - pardon me, we're meeting with the Toronto Public board today at the ministry just to work with them to figure out how do we ensure safety, how do we ensure that parents put their kids in school with confidence. And that's our commitment and we're going to continue to be there for our boards and for our kids in Ontario.
So our reporter asked, again. "With all due respect, that didn't really answer my direct question. So the question is, given the constant drumbeat of serious concerns coming from parents, and you mentioned Toronto Public Health, about class sizes, will you commit to revisiting your plan on smaller class sizes? Right now, yes or no?"
"Well we put $30 million dollars in place to allow school boards, including Toronto Public, to hire more educators, we're the only province who have done that because we accept that it's important that we have that distancing. Now I've also indicated yesterday, really through the beginning, that this is a living document. It's responding to emerging evidence. And so what I'm indicating is that we've put funding in place to enable more hiring. We encourage the school board to utilize those funds to do that. And we're going to continue to be there for our board and work with them on a solution going forward that ensures students can be safe. That is really the answer in short, because when it comes to our track record to date we have stepped up investments, stepped up resources, more cleaning, more testing, more screening and more presence of staff in our schools as a consequence of our investments. And we're going to continue to be there for school boards, we will ensure we do whatever it takes to keep them safe," Lecce responded.
He maintains the province is prepared to work collaboratively to find a solution, but whether it's open to revisiting its plan and smaller class sizes right now, it won't say definitively.