The Ontario government required two Ottawa school boards to agree to use “consistent messaging” in exchange for emergency funding for busing, according to documents obtained through an access-to-information request.provided The Globe and Mail with documents that showed the government imposed conditions in exchange for $1.8-million in additional funding for student transportation.
NDP education critic Chandra Pasma, who obtained the documents, said the government changed the funding criteria to school boards for transportation, shortchanged the Ottawa boards and then “muzzled” them by providing emergency funding with strings attached.
Isha Chaudhuri, a spokesperson for Education Minister Stephen Lecce, did not directly address why the government tied funding for student transportation to messaging.