Debate over defunding Ontario’s Catholic schools is raging again. Experts say doing it is actually quite simple

Here’s a closer look at the constitutional amendment required to merge the two systems and why there hasn’t been the political will to follow through with it despite strong public support.

Dissolving Catholic school funding needs government approval

While the Canadian constitution includes section 93, a provision protecting denominational rights and schools like Ontario’s publicly-funded Catholic school system, it can be easily amended, said Samuel Trosow, a professor of law at Western University.

“It’s a much simpler process than many think,” he said.

Though the constitution sets a very high bar to fundamentally change some systems — to abolish the monarchy, for example, the House of Commons, the Senate, and all 10 provincial legislatures must agree — the process to merge the Catholic and public school systems is relatively straightforward.

That’s because the 1982 Constitution Act, which created the constitution’s amendment procedure, only requires the provincial assembly and federal Parliament to agree to an amendment for provisions that only apply to certain provinces, such as section 93.

“It would take a majority vote, which could happen within a short amount of time in the provincial assembly, then it would go to Parliament,” explained Trosow, who co-authored a 2018 article exploring the benefits of consolidating the two public systems. “I think the real issue, though, is whether the provincial assembly would go ahead with it because I can’t imagine the federal Parliament not complying with the wishes of the (provincial) legislative assembly.”

Strong support for single school system

There is already some precedent, with Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador passing similar constitutional resolutions in the 1990s concerning public funding for faith-based educational institutions.

Many of those who support defunding Catholic schools argue the current system is unfair and costly.

In 1999, the United Nations Human Rights Committee labelled Ontario’s policy to fund Catholic schools but not other religious schools as “discriminatory.”

Others have pointed to the possible savings that could be afforded by merging the two school systems. A 2012 discussion paper by the Federation of Urban Neighbourhoods of Ontario estimated that the move could save the province between $1.2 to $1.5 billion each year.

The constitutional provision protecting these denominational rights was enacted at a time when the dominant school system favoured Protestantism and Catholics in Upper Canada were considered a vulnerable minority.

“But we’ve kind of lost the original rationale for doing it, because Catholics are actually the biggest religious group in Canada today, and we’re clearly a more diverse and inclusive society than we were in 1867,” said Kelly Gallagher-Mackay, an associate professor of law and society at Wilfrid Laurier University whose research focuses on education inequality.

Public support for such a change is strong. Some 56 per cent of Ontarians surveyed by Ipsos in 2018 said they would support a merger of the Catholic and public school systems, creating a single school system. Roughly one quarter said they would keep the existing system, while 18 per cent of respondents said they want to extend public funding to all faith-based schools.

Little political will to change existing framework

Despite the favourable public support, there has been little political will to amend the constitutional provision.

The issue is, unsurprisingly, a political hot potato. Progressive Conservative premier Bill Davis’s decision to extend full funding to Catholic schools in 1985 was received poorly. It’s generally cited as one of the reasons why the Tories were reduced to a minority government that year and subsequently trounced in the 1987 election.

In 2007, then PC leader John Tory decided to take another approach: he promised to extend public funding to other faith-based schools, arguing it was a matter of “fairness.” Tory’s proposal was also poorly received with the Tories losing badly and Tory himself failing to win his seat during the Ontario election.

In recent years, only the provincial Green Party has expressed support for creating a single school system.

“People are comfortable with their local schools and changing big things in education is something that often is harder,” said Gallagher-Mackay on the general lack of political will. “I think there’s fear that the people who don’t support the change would be very mobilized to object.”

Correction — June 1, 2023: Progressive Conservative premier Bill Davis’s decision to extend full funding to Catholic schools in 1985 is generally cited as one of the reasons why the Tories were trounced in the 1987 election. A previous version of this article erroneously said the election was in 1986.

With files by Bob Hepburn