Ontario Government Builds New School in Windsor

Province’s investment in innovative and modern learning spaces will ensure students have high quality education in a safe and healthy environment.

NEWS	Tuesday, September 15^th, 2023

Windsor ― Today, Andrew Dowie, MPP for Windsor—Tecumseh announced that the new Eastview Horizon Public School will be welcoming students in September for the 2023-24 school year. This project is a part of Ontario’s ongoing efforts to build and improve local schools, with the province providing the Greater Essex County District School Board with $13.9 million to build the school in Windsor.

This project will deliver 501 elementary spaces and 73 licensed child care spaces for local families during the 2023-24 school year. The investment is part of Ontario’s commitment to providing $15 billion to support school construction, repair, and renewal over 10 years. Since 2018, the government has approved nearly 200 school construction projects and the development of more than 300 child care and education building-related projects, of which more than 100 are actively under construction.

“The completion of the new Eastview Horizon Public School in Windsor is great news for our community,” said Andrew Dowie, MPP for Windsor—Tecumseh. “This investment will ensure families and students have access to a quality learning environment in the years ahead.”

Additionally, Ontario is taking action to ensure that school board capital assets are used effectively and efficiently to meet the needs of growing communities, support student learning and ensure value for taxpayer dollars. The Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act, 2023 empowers decision-makers to build modern schools faster by better utilizing school capacity, reducing barriers for school boards to facilitate agreements for schools in multi-use buildings such as condo towers, and shortening planning time by requiring school boards to use certain designs or plans when constructing, renovating, or making additions to schools.

“We are determined to build schools and expansions faster, part of our commitment to modernize schools in fast growing communities,” said Stephen Lecce, Minister of Education. “We are proud to deliver a new, state-of-the-art Eastview Horizon Public School for Windsor families, along with increasing funding, staffing and a back-to-basics focus on reading, writing and math skills to help ensure students graduate with confidence that they can succeed in good-paying careers.”

Highlights of the project include:

501 new student spaces
4 new child care rooms (73 new child care spaces)

“Under Premier Ford’s leadership, we’re building more state-of-the-art schools to support the needs of Ontario’s students, families and growing communities. By investing in innovative and modern learning spaces, we’re ensuring students have access to the quality education that will provide them with lifelong skills and education in a safe and healthy environment,” said Kinga Surma, Minister of Infrastructure. “These investments are one of the ways we’re delivering on our promise to build Ontario, with an infrastructure budget of more than $148 billion over the next decade.”

“It was a pleasure to be in attendance as students and their families arrived at the new school for the first day of classes. We’ve got a lot of recent experience opening new schools and everything went smoothly. The Ministry of Education and the Government of Ontario have been very responsive to our need to replace many of our aging schools and to meet the demand of some growing neighbourhoods and communities and we are confident of more in the future” stated Vicki Houston, Director of Education.

Eastview Horizon Public School is located at 3070 Stillmeadow Road in Windsor.

Quick Facts:

Since 2018, the Ontario government has invested over $2.2 billion in capital projects in education, including 100 new schools, 88 additions and renovations to existing facilities and nearly 6,500 new licensed child care spaces.

For the 2023-24 school year, the province is providing school boards with approximately $1.4 billion in funding to revitalize and renew aged building systems and components.

In June 2023, Ontario passed The Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act that will ensure the public education system focuses on what matters most: important life‑long skills such as reading, writing and math; improve accountability and transparency for parents and families; and maximize capital assets of boards to support building modern schools faster and better utilize current school capacity and enhance accountability and transparency.

In March 2022, the Governments of Canada and Ontario signed a $13.2 billion agreement that will lower child care fees in stages for families, delivering an average of $10 a day child care by September 2025.

MEDIA CONTACT

Paul Synnott

Executive Assistant Andrew Dowie, MPP

Windsor-Tecumseh

Ph: 519-251-0437 Cell: 226-724-6978

Email: paul.synnott@pc.ola.org