The Progressive Contractors Association of Canada (PCA) says there’s an easy solution to helping the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) reduce its multi-million repair backlog: by supporting open tendering.

An advocacy group known as Fix Our School pegged the provincial school maintenance and repair backlog at $16.8 billion in 2022, with warnings that gap grows each year. 

The TDSB, for its part, said it spent a record $370 million on repairs and related projects across its schools in 2023. It has about $380 million earmarked for similar projects this year but has yet to formally spend it, citing delays in receiving materials, approvals and the availability of qualified of contractors. 

PCA says that issue is partly TDSB’s own doing.

In 2019, the board voted to opt out of provincial legislation that would have allowed it to openly tender school construction work. According to the independent Cardus think tank, the move would have saved the board approximately 21 percent on construction work, which translates into a $77.7 million savings annually.

Open tendering is a procurement process that allows all qualified contractors and their workers to bid on, and build publicly funded construction projects. Union affiliation is not a prerequisite.

Because it has opted out of open tendering, TDSB awards all of its construction work to only selected contractors and their affiliated unions.

By restricting competition, PCA says, TDSB’s repair costs have risen dramatically. For example, the installation of a school’s front lawn sign cost $19,000. An electrical outlet in a school library was billed at $3,000. There was also the $143 bill to install a $17 pencil sharpener.

“This is a problem the TDSB should solve,” said Karen Renkema, VP Ontario at the PCA. “If the school board supported open tendering, more repairs could be carried out at a far lower cost.”

TDSB reports that more than half of its schools are 60 years old or older. It has identified approximately 23,500 different repairs needed in its schools, with 70 per cent of those in critical or poor condition. The total estimated cost of those repairs was $4.2 billion as of March 2023.

The board estimates its long-term repair and maintenance backlog could reach $4.9 billion by 2027.

“The Toronto District School Board does students a great disservice by leaving schools in such a sorry state of disrepair,” added Renkema. “Groups advocating for school repairs should be asking the TDSB why it continues to ignore the obvious solution.”