The Car Is Public. The Keys Aren’t.

Transcript

The film’s spoken words, as in its caption file. Time stamps are minutes and seconds into the film.

1. 0:00 · The car is public

   The car is public. The keys are not. This is about who controls Ontario’s school boards.

2. 0:06 · A school board is one system

   A school board isn’t just buildings. Teaching, supports, transport, governance, community: families experience them as one system.

3. 0:15 · First, the keys

   First, the keys. Under Bill 33, a vesting order gives the Minister control of a board’s officers and employees, revenues, assets, and the sale of assets. On April 13, 2026, Ontario said eight boards were under supervision. Under elected trustees, financial distress was part of the case for intervention. Under provincial supervision, deficits do not disappear. The framing changes. A warning light proves that something requires attention. It does not, by itself, prove who caused the failure.

4. 0:48 · Then, the easy parts

   Then, the easy parts. At one supervised board, Dufferin-Peel, the budget lists 3.4 million dollars in savings from reductions in vice-principal, consultant, senior-management and central-office positions, and attrition. It says the aim was to minimize classroom impacts.

5. 1:07 · Then, the core systems

   Then, the core systems. Bill 101 lets the Minister set policy for a board’s public communications, and an English-language board can’t dismiss its director without the Minister’s written approval. None of these provisions alone proves privatization. For school-building work, in specified cases, the Minister can select a “person or body” to control spending, contracts and vendors. The board can be directed to pay its reasonably incurred fees and expenses. The law doesn’t say it will be a private company.

6. 1:40 · And the shell

   And the shell. Dufferin-Peel expected about 17.5 million dollars from two property sales to mitigate its deficit, and called it one-time and unsustainable. Province-wide, the FAO estimated a 6.5 billion dollar repair backlog, on school buildings worth 123.3 billion dollars to replace. Not to sell.

7. 2:03 · What the record documents

   Ontario says supervision is meant to restore accountability, and that its new oversight law would direct every dollar into classrooms. The record documents a transfer architecture. It does not prove a secret privatization contract.

8. 2:17 · Who holds the keys?

   So: who holds the keys? Who gets the contracts? Who carries the bill? Ask your MPP for public exit criteria, published contracts and fee disclosure. Share the record, not the accusation.