TDSB Investigation, Part 4 — The Integration Point
How centralized control became the new crisis.
TDSB Investigation, Part 4 — The Integration Point1. The Pretext of Order
Bill 33 promised “consistency.” Supervision promised “accountability.”
In practice, neither delivered. Across Toronto, Ottawa, and Thames Valley, decisions are being made in silence while parents learn after the fact that programs are cut, committees dissolved, and classrooms reorganized mid-term.
When OCDSB supervisor Robert Plamondon told reporters it was “not his mandate to speak to the press,” the message was unmistakable. Transparency is no longer a requirement. It is now treated as an inconvenience.
2. Manufactured Chaos
Education Minister Paul Calandra claims school boards “overspend” on special education, libraries, and mental health. The truth is that these are not luxuries. They are the foundation of a functioning public system.
Underfunding creates instability. The province then steps in to “fix” that instability.
It is the oldest pattern in politics: light the fire, then sell the water.
3. The Real Cost of Layers
Ontario’s boards do not suffer because individuals earn decent wages. They suffer because the system has become a pyramid of parallel managers: directors, associate directors, superintendents, and assistants, each required to approve the same decision.
The TDSB operates with ten percent fewer administrators than comparable boards, yet it is still branded “bloated.”
Meanwhile, provincial appointees draw six-figure salaries for silence.
The problem is not the paycheque.
It is the payroll pyramid.
4. Copy and Paste Oversight
Ottawa’s parent committees now echo Toronto’s frustration. Public input is frozen. Advisory groups are “paused.” Decisions are announced only after they have been made.
Supervision has become a travelling template. Control first, consultation later.
5. The Pattern Behind the Curtain
Each step follows the same choreography:
Undermine confidence in local trustees.
Replace them with unelected overseers.
Rebrand central authority as “efficiency.”
Call the resulting silence “stability.”
This is not education reform. It is a governance conversion.
6. The Cost of Silence
A supervisor who cannot speak to the public is not neutral. He is insulated.
Families are left without advocates. Staff are left without direction. Communities are left without voice.
Accountability has been inverted. Those spending public funds now answer only upward, never outward.
7. The Integration Point
The experiment is complete. Ontario’s boards are being integrated into a single chain of command.
The rhetoric is fiscal discipline. The outcome is political consolidation.
North Star Commentary
You do not protect democracy by removing its participants.
You protect it by demanding they answer for their decisions.
While headlines focused on optics, the real reorganization happened quietly — in classrooms and contracts.
→ Read Part 5: The Hidden Reorganization.
