The ABCs of EDCs: Why the TDSB can't collect money like other boards and the fight to change that

How do you clear a repair backlog of $3.7 billion?

The Toronto District School Board's repair backlog is projected to grow to almost $5 billion by 2025 if the current level of provincial funding doesn't increase, but the board says several alternative ways to chip away at that backlog or build new schools are being blocked by provincial red tape. Among them, a 2017 provincial moratorium on school closures — which means the board cannot close schools with low student enrolment and sell the buildings and land — and not having access to Educational Development Charges (EDCs), which would allow the board to buy land for new schools. EDCs are designed to ensure that growth pays for growth by charging developers for the potential influx of students their new residential properties could bring. School boards can then use that money to purchase land to build new schools, but not pay for repairs. The TDSB says it could collect half a billion dollars over the next 15 years through EDCs. While other school boards, like the Toronto Catholic District School Board are eligible to collect EDCs, the TDSB is not.  Here's why. In order to qualify for EDCs, a board must have more students than space on a district-wide level, which means even though some TDSB schools are full, there's still a surplus of space across the board, and it is ineligible for EDCs.