Near 30 per cent of Ottawa-Carleton District College Board (OCDSB) faculties are under a “state of good repair,” in response to a brand new monetary report.
The Monetary Accountability Workplace of Ontario’s (FAO) report exhibits that 45 out of the 147 OCDSB faculties, 30.6 per cent, are under the state of fine restore.
The buildings had been assessed on a rolling five-year cycle, the place impartial engineers examined the colleges’ situations, and the prices related to the repairs. The varsity buildings had been then labeled into two classes, that are both in a state of fine restore, requiring repairs, or under a state of fine restore, which implies the varsity must be both rehabilitated or rebuilt, reads the report.
Over the subsequent 10 years, the FAO estimates a complete price of $127 million to clear the infrastructure backlog, $433 million to keep up the state of fine restore, and a complete price of $13.4 million to rebuild faculties within the OCDSB, reads the report.
In whole, over the subsequent 10 years, the FAO estimates a value of $21.7 billion to clear the backlog and keep all faculty buildings in a state of fine restore throughout the province, together with a $16.3 billion for varsity buildings within the English Public faculty system, $4 billion for the English Catholic faculty system, $0.4 billion for the French Public faculty system, and $1 billion for the French Catholic faculty system, reads the report.
The FAO is estimating a funds shortfall of $12.7 billion over 10 years throughout the province. The shortfall is estimated in response to the province’s 10-year-capital plan as outlined within the 2024 funds, reads the report.
In accordance with the report, a complete of three,037 faculties are in a state of fine restore, 1,781 faculties are under the state of fine restore or require rehabilitation, and solely 32 faculties require to be rebuilt within the province.
In accordance with the report, a complete of three,037 faculties are in a state of fine restore, 1,781 faculties are under the state of fine restore or require rehabilitation, and solely 32 faculties require to be rebuilt within the province.
College capability pressures
The utilization fee of the OCDSB faculties for the 2023-24 faculty yr was 94.1 per cent, with 76,059 enrolled college students. The speed is 87.6 per cent for your entire province, with a complete of 1,011,907 enrolled college students, reads the report.
The report additionally reads that for the varsity yr 2023-24, 35.4 per cent of OCDSB faculties had been over capability, 51.7 per cent had been below capability and 12.9 per cent had been underutilized. In Ontario, 30.1 per cent of colleges operated over capability, 52.2 per cent had been below capability, and 17.7 per cent had been underutilized.
Over the subsequent 10 years, the FAO estimates that college enrolment will improve by a median annual development fee of 0.4 per cent over the subsequent ten years, which implies the varsity boards might want to handle an estimated whole capability strain of 240,878 college students in 2033-34, in response to the report.
The report suggests constructing new faculties and utilizing the underutilized faculties to offset enrollment development and optimize areas. Extra details about the steered measures can be found within the report on-line.
The FAO offers impartial evaluation to the provincial authorities.
Ontario Chronicle Ottawa has reached out to the OCDSB for remark.
