Supervisor keeps detailed budget figures private
The board supervisor has also chosen to keep some details of the budget private.
In prior years, the TDSB has publicly released a report alongside its financial statements detailing the rationale for why the board over- or under-spent on various expense categories, relative to projected spending. Not so this year.
Neither the TDSB nor the Ministry of Education responded to TorontoToday’s questions prior to publication about spending and revenue discrepancies.
Why did the province give the TDSB more money?
Two TDSB trustees who spoke with TorontoToday said they are only able to speculate on the board’s finances for last year.
Trustee Shelley Laskin (Eglinton-Lawrence and Toronto-St. Paul's) said she believed a portion of the increase in provincial core education funding to the TDSB in 2025 was forced upon the province by the Ontario Superior Court.
Last February, the appeal court ruled the provincial government's three-year imposed one per cent wage cap on public sector employees was unconstitutional.
Subsequently, an arbitrator mandated the government had 60 days to provide affected school boards with funds to cover retroactive pay.
Ricardo Tranjan, Ontario research director with think tank Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, told TorontoToday in an emailed statement that he agrees with Laskin’s hypothesis.
Tranjan said it would pose a problem for the sustainability of the board’s finances long-term, as the injection of cash for educators was a one-time increase. Tranjan’s research has found the board is in need of a revised funding formula because the province has been underfunding education relative to inflation.
What about the cuts in 2025?
Despite increased spending across multiple parts of the TDSB’s operations last year, the board spent about $100 million less in 2025 than had been budgeted in two categories.
Last year, the board spent just $9 million — and about $53 million less than had been projected — on an expense category called “other programs.”
No details were provided in the report as to which programs this reduction impacted, however Laskin speculated that some of the savings may have come as a result of a decision to reduce funding for school swim teachers.
Last summer, as TDSB trustees sought to balance the board’s books for 2025, they considered closing a number of school pools. While trustees ultimately voted against this plan in the short-term, Laskin said Gupta subsequently decided “that the staffing complement for aquatics instructors would be scaled back.”
She noted that as a result of this choice, some schools this year have not been able to offer swimming lessons and programs to students at levels seen in prior years.
The provincial government has long stressed that TDSB must operate its swimming pools on a cost-recovery basis, which had not been happening.
In November, parents of students at Carleton Village Junior and Senior Sports & Wellness Academy staged a protest over the government’s latest education bill, alleging, among other concerns, that pool access for students at the school had been cut in half.
Separately, the board also spent about $44 million less (or about 10 per cent less) than had been budgeted on “pupil accommodations.”
According to the province’s education funding guidelines, per pupil accommodation funding covers costs for classroom materials and resources such as supplies, textbooks and technological devices as well as staff positions that support students outside of the classrooms, such as teacher-librarians and guidance counsellors.
Instead of spending the planned $435 million on public accommodations in 2025, the TDSB spent just $390 million.
More spending on administration
Over the past year, Calandra has chastised the TDSB and other boards for their alleged bureaucratic overspending.
In a December letter to parents, the education minister also celebrated the work of supervisor Gupta at the TDSB in having “redirected millions of dollars into classrooms by freezing all non-school based hiring and eliminating central positions in the board.”
However, Calandra’s rhetoric doesn’t square with the board’s 2025 spending.
In 2025 board administrative expenses were about $12 million higher than had been budgeted — the TDSB had budgeted spending $93 million on administration, but actually spent about $105 million on such expenses by year end.
Trustee Matias de Dovitiis (Humber River–Black Creek) said it’s “very ironic” that more money was spent on administrative expenses under supervision than the board had budgeted.
Both de Dovitiis and Laskin said they believe the government’s fixation on the board’s administrative spending in recent years has been misplaced.
“It’s a red herring,” said Laskin, who argued that the board’s complement of principals, vice-principals and superintendents is appropriate given the size and complexity of the board.
Mixed reactions to 2025 finances
Laskin said that last year, the provincial government was able to impose a supervisor due to the board projecting a very modest deficit for 2025. However, based on the actual funding delivered by the province to the TDSB last year, the board would have been in the black.
“The only reason why a supervisor [was able to be appointed] is because they were concerned about [the] deficit budget,” she said. “Based on the actuals, we would have had reserves to cover off [the gap].”
De Dovitiis said part of the role of trustees is to provide the public with information on how the board is spending its $4 billion budget.
He said it’s frustrating to not be able to provide clear insight, now that trustees have been sidelined by supervision and the board is releasing less information than in years past.
https://www.torontotoday.ca/local/education/tdsb-posts-31-million-surplus-2025-not-because-less-spending-11710112
