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Ontario’s five major education unions are urging the province to halt the passage of Bill 33, warning it will undermine local decision-making and distract from what they describe as serious and growing challenges in publicly funded schools.
The joint statement was issued Tuesday by L’Association des enseignantes et des enseignants franco-ontariens, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association, the Ontario School Board Council of Unions, and the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation/FEESO.
The unions say the province continues to face overcrowded classrooms, rising incidents of violence, deteriorating infrastructure, and ongoing pressure on special education and language supports. They argue that Bill 33 does nothing to address these issues and instead reduces the authority of locally elected school trustees.
According to the unions, the legislation shifts power to ministry-appointed supervisors who may have no ties to the communities they oversee. They say this would weaken transparency and limit public input on decisions that directly affect students and families.
The statement also points to what the unions call decades of underfunding that have forced boards to manage increasing student needs with limited resources. They argue that governance changes will not resolve these pressures and warn that Bill 33 could further destabilize the system by centralizing authority within the provincial government.
The unions say the bill is part of a broader pattern of reducing public oversight and worry it could open the door to greater privatization of education services. They plan to continue advocating against the legislation as it advances at Queen’s Park.
(Written by: Joseph Goden)
