TORONTO

Ontario’s education minister denies $80.5 million in secret payments were made to curry favour with the province’s powerful teachers’ unions.

Liz Sandals balked at the suggestion during a press conference Wednesday where she found herself on the hot seat over the payments uncovered by Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk. The AG says Ontario has given teachers’ unions approximately $80.5 million since 2000, including $22 million with “no strings attached” in 2006.

Initially, Lysyk was asked to probe several million in bargaining costs the province quietly paid to the teachers’ unions. However, her probe of that spending also uncovered the $80.5 million earmarked for professional development which went straight to the unions and not to the school boards who employ the teachers. The 2006 payment of $22 million did not require the unions to report back on how the cash was spent, she said.

Sandals brushed off suggestions that the money was used to cosy up to the teachers.

“I don’t think there was any connection,” she said. “The practice of working with the professional development side of the unions was well established long-before 2006 which seems to have become the year in question.”

Sandals defended the $80.5 million spent, calling it an investment in professional development that resulted in “improvement in teaching quality and has increased student achievement.”

But Lysyk said when her team looked across Canada they could only find one other province that had such an arrangement and it spent a fraction of what Ontario did — $1 million to $2 million over five years in British Columbia.

“It’s a matter of being transparent and it’s a matter of the parties who are involved in this ... sitting down and looking at this mix of money and looking at the PD that’s given and really deciding where the value is for the students,” she said.

On covering the union’s bargaining costs, Lysyk calls the government payments “unusual” but says they are “within the government’s authority.” But Lysyk also says she found no evidence of governments across Canada doing the same thing.

In response to the report, the Ministry of Education has told the AG it does not plan to pay union bargaining costs in the future.

Francine LeBlanc-Lebel, president of the Ontario Teacher’s Federation, said the AG didn’t consult her office before penning the report and called it “not quite accurate” when it came to professional development funding.

“If you calculate it, that comes out to $15 per teacher,” she said of the cash the OTF received. “That’s a pretty good investment.”

“OTF delivers very efficient and effective PD. We take this responsibility very seriously.”

LeBlanc-Lebel said teachers are provided with training on a wide array of subjects and often complete the work voluntarily and on their own time.

“The sole beneficiaries of this are the students,” she said.

Treasury Board critic Lisa MacLeod said the report will make parent question if this money could have been better spent on things like in-class resources or school upkeep.

“I think it’s a clear question of priorities this government has and what most parents expect.”