Modernizing Toronto’s Public Schools

Welcome to the TLC Times, the first issue of the Toronto Lands Corporation’s new newsletter. The aim and purpose of this publication will be to educate and inform those interested in the success of Toronto’s public schools of the work that the TLC does on behalf of the Toronto District School Board to position the Board to be a progressive and transformative leader in the strategic use of this important public property portfolio. 

It is widely accepted that there is a direct relationship between the quality of a students physical learning environment and their ability to reach their potential. Recognizing that, in June 2021 TDSB Trustees approved TLC’s plan to explore opportunities to modernize the Boards aging network of schools in a manner that would support long term student accommodation.  This endorsement set in motion our strategy to identify, analyze, model and demonstrate the significant potential the Board has to generate its own revenue to compliment provincial grants used to repair and build schools. We estimate this potential to be $1B over the next decade.

It’s no secret, Toronto’s public schools have a substantial repair backlog, approx. $4B and growing. For many schools it would be more costly to repair the school, than it would be to take it down and build a new one. The wear & tear of welcoming hundreds of thousands of elementary and secondary school students for sixty to 100 years will do that. The current pandemic has accelerated our need to ensure that our school buildings are designed for a modern education system and that we maximize the value of these public assets to support all students in safe and healthy learning environments, remove accessibility barriers,  promote greater student success and build complete communities. That’s the value of modernization.

The City of Toronto has expressed interest in several joint land use and real estate initiatives with us, the province has asked us to participate in a working group with them over the summer to further study the opportunity and policy implications, and  community groups and service providers have invited us into conversations regarding co-locating their services on redeveloped Board properties. Needles to say, there is a wealth of potential, opportunity and public interest in maximizing the valuable land assets of the TDSB.

We are excited about our role in helping the TDSB achieve its strategic goals of transforming student learning, creating a culture of well-being, providing access to learning opportunities and allocating resources strategically. The generational opportunity to renew Toronto’s public schools is upon us and we look forward to sharing with you the plans, rationale, analysis and benefits to our students, families and staff communities across the city.

We hope you enjoy our newsletter and look forward to your feedback at communications.tlc@tdsb.on.ca