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in si de ha lto n. co m O ak vi lle B ea ve r | T hu rs da y, M ar ch 28 ,2 01 9 | 6 ABOUT US This newspaper, published every Thursday, is a division of the Metroland Media Group Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Torstar Corporation. The Metroland family of newspapers is comprised family of newspapers is comprised f of more than 80 community publications across Ontario. This newspaper is a member of the National NewsMedia Council. Complainants are urged to bring their concerns to the attention of the news- paper and, if not satisfied, write The National NewsMedia Council, Suite 200, 890 Yonge St., Toronto, ON M4W 2H2. 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OPINION TO LEARN HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR OWN CONTENT VISIT INSIDEHALTON.COM EDITORIAL If you were among those who felt anxiety about the Ford government's education reforms, you probably heaved a sigh of relief when they were finally rolled out. The government made noises about changing or even killing all-day kindergarten, but ultimately ended up supporting it, at least so far. It didn't mandate larger class sizes for early year students. After vilifying and killing the previous government's sex education curriculum, the government ended up restoring virtually all of the elements from the curricu- lum it professed to hate. The new-not-new curriculum covers most of the same ground, which is bound to make social conservatives angry, since they threw their sup- port behind Ford's PC party leadership in part because he pledged to kill sex-ed. But while that segment of Ford's base must feel betrayed, students will be better served, and parents - most of whom supported the mod- ern curriculum - will be happy with the outcome. A "back to basics" math curriculum is also in the reforms. There are mixed opinions on that, but the fact is math scores were trending downward, so some chang- es are appropriate. Although maintaining current class size caps from kindergarten to Grade 3, Education Minister Lisa Thompson announced that an average of one student will be added to classes in Grades 4 to 8, which average high school class sizes increasing from 22 to 28. That sounds reasonable. Not so fast. While Thompson said "Not one teacher - not one - will lose their job because of our class size strategy," many education experts disagree. The govern- ment says any teacher reductions will be realized through retirement and attrition, but the fact remains that at the end of the rollout, there will be thousands fewer teachers in the system than there are today. In fact, a Toronto District School Board document reveals the class sizes will mean the loss of approxi- mately 800 high school teaching positions, along with 216 in Grades 4 through 8. The same report states that with the government's earlier round of cuts - $25 million for special programs - 82 high school positions will dis- appear. Estimates are that total job losses through attri- tion will be between 16,000 and 18,000. Then there's the fact that class sizes aren't what the seem. While the government funds for an average of 22 students, the reality is that classes often reach 30 or more to accommodate smaller specialized classes. Union officials are predicting these changes will mean class sizes of 40 in some cases. Then there's this. Arbitrarily increasing class sizes will lead to collective bargaining with teacher unions and boards getting off to a terrible start before negotia- tions even begin. In many cases local agreements in- clude class size provisions, so unions will be fighting the provincial-controlled changes from the start. These reforms may not be all bad, but they're certain- ly not all good, and they open the door to stormy weath- er in our education system. EDUCATION CHANGES ARE MORE AND LESS THAN THEY SEEM If we are to stay on our path of efficiency and af- fordability we will need tofordability we will need tof avoid cost drivers such asavoid cost drivers such asa population growth. That's why council and I have worked hard to cut the rate of growth of Oak- ville's population in half. Canada's 2016 census shows Oakville's popula- tion grew to 193,832 people from 182,520 in 2011. The 6.2from 182,520 in 2011. The 6.2f per cent growth rate from 2011 to 2016 was less than half of what it was from 2001 to 2006, when the growth rate was 14.4 per cent. But the challenge re- mains - residents are pay- ing more than they should in taxes to subsidize new homes for new residents. For 22 years and coun- ting Ontario provincial government policy has for- bidden municipalities from collecting more thanfrom collecting more thanf 75 per cent of growth costs. Their reasoning for doing this is it doesn't want mu- nicipalities to be able to use growth to improve themselves. However taxpayers are paying about 25 per cent of growth costs while devel- opers profit. We estimate property taxes about ten per cent higher than they would be without this pen- alty on growth. If municipalities are to run more efficiently and effectively, growth needs to pay for itself. Council and I are active- ly lobbying the govern- ment to fix the unfair bur- den on existing property taxpayers who should not be paying for growth. We are also hoping thatWe are also hoping thatW in the province's ongoing review of its growth plan it will realize that it has not been keeping up with its duty to support growth with the necessary schools, teachers, trans- portation, transit and health funding, including long-term care beds, and housing for seniors. They either need to live up to their responsibilities or they have got to help us stop growth. I have a great deal of hope the province recog- nizes these challenges af- ter meeting with key pro- vincial government minis- ters recently with Halton regional chair Gary Carr. We have challengesWe have challengesW ahead, but I am keen to continue on our path of steady fiscal discipline that earned us recognition by the Institute on Munici- pal Finance and Gover- nance as the municipality with the strongest and healthiest finances. This helps make us Canada's best place to live. Rob Burton is the may- or of Oakville. Visit www.oakville.ca/mayor for more information and follow @MayorRobBurton on Facebook and @Oak- villeMayor on Twitter. STAYING ON AN EFFICIENT, AFFORDABLE PATH IT HELPS MAKE US CANADA'S BEST PLACE TO LIVE, WRITES ROB BURTON ROB BURTON Column