A million dollars in wage increases were handed out to senior Toronto District School Board officials, despite assurances by Premier Kathleen Wynne of a wage freeze.

PC Education Critic and MPP Rob Leone said he was disappointed to hear of another sad chapter in the never ending stream of taxpayer waste at the TDSB and proof that any talk Liberal wage restraint has been disingenuous.

“This government has taken a curtain call time and time again on their so called wage freeze. We are seeing evidence today that it has been an abject failure.”

Leone was also dismayed that the findings of the audit were released on the same day the Auditor General released his report.  The audit, performed by Ernst and Young and addressed to the Minister of Education, was dated December 2nd, 2013. However the report was only released today prompting questions that the ministry is playing politics with the findings.

“Is this the kind of transparency we have come to expect from the Ministry?” continued Leone. “Instead of being honest and open, they bury stories and hope Ontarian’s don’t notice. Well we’ve noticed and taxpayers have been misled again.”

The audit comes on the heels of last December’s scandal,  where  the TDSB paid contractors $143 dollars to screw in a pencil sharpener and billed $266 for seven hours of work to hang three pictures on a wall. This audit showed as much as $3.2M in government grants for Full Day Kindergarten and other projects may not have been used in accordance with Ministry guidelines.

“How many free passes will the TDSB get before the Minister of Education does her job and holds someone accountable?” said Leone.

The PC Education critic added that it’s not enough for Education Minister Liz Sandals to watch from the sidelines.

“Monitoring the situation is no longer acceptable,” concluded Leone. “The TDSB has repeatedly abused the trust of Ontario Taxpayers and the Minister’s shoddy oversight has not changed the board’s behavior one bit.”

“We are spending $8.5 billion dollars more in education with 250,000 fewer students all while math scores continue to plummet,” said Leone. “Now we know where all that money is going.”

 

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