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TORONTO — Once sitting high atop a list of Ontarians’ most popular budget ideas, a suggestion to amalgamate Catholic and public school boards has taken a precipitous nosedive to 1,715th on a budget consultation website.
Midway through the Liberal government’s online consultation period, during which Ontario residents could post what they wanted to see in the upcoming budget, the amalgamation idea was riding high.
The original poster suggested amalgamation but wrote that, ideally, the government should stop funding Catholic education as “religious education should be private.”
The idea’s No. 1 status was not meant to be.
Users could vote ideas up or down and the drop to dead last began soon after news stories about the website and its most popular ideas were published on Jan. 12.
The Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association sent out a plea to its database, calling on people to “speak up in opposition” on the website to amalgamating school boards and eliminating Catholic school funding, giving suggested talking points.
An average of one person per day was voting the idea down until that point, but Ministry of Finance figures show that on Jan. 13, it received 98 down votes, followed by 266 and 211 the next two days.
The opposition parties are pretty sure the ideas from the website — which decry as an exercise in futility — won’t actually make it in the budget. They’re convinced it’s all but written already.
But Kathy Burtnik, president of the OCSTA, said it was important for all views about Catholic school funding to be known.
“We have a responsibility to those families that choose to send their kids to our schools,” she said.
However, though the once-most-popular idea on school board amalgamation was successfully down-voted — it had negative 507 votes, compared to the next least popular idea of funding graduate education for international students with negative 66 votes — there are dozens more ideas aimed at eliminating funding for Catholic schools.
Finance Minister Charles Sousa has already nixed that idea, as well as the second most popular idea of stopping the partial sale of Hydro One. The government is also unlikely to reverse a seven-per-cent fee cut imposed on doctors last year, as the most popular idea urges.
If the government doesn’t heed the Hydro One idea they are “essentially saying they’re not really interested in getting that feedback,” said NDP critic Catherine Fife.
“You can’t ask for feedback then just pick and choose what you want,” she said.
But Sousa insists he’s considering some ideas gleaned from the consultations.
“Certainly there was a reaction as a result of certain individuals promoting one thing and other individuals voting it down … but I encouraged people to submit their ideas and let them voice their concerns,” he said.
There were 1,715 ideas submitted online, 700 in-person consultations at 20 sessions across the province, and two telephone town halls held.
Sousa has declined to say exactly when he plans to introduce the provincial budget — last year’s was tabled near the end of April — but the opposition is speculating it will be earlier this year.
