Using the 2016 census, I just did some math. I took the numbers of children from age 5-19 for each province and territory.

Turns out that Ontario has almost double the students that Quebec does.

Also, EVERY OTHER PROVINCE & TERRITORY TOGETHER is almost equal to Ontario.

It'll cost Ontario more money than any other jursidiction to open safely. It HAS to.

$300M for more teachers is around 400 teachers in middle of wage grid.

That would be usable number in almost every other jurisdiction.

To reopen safely, my board alone needs more than that.

NL = 79,330
PEI = 24,325
NS = 143,080
NB = 116,735
QC = 1 ,318,150
ON = 2,322,285
MN = 245,195
SK = 210,215
AB = 752,670
BC = 729,740
NV = 10,675
NWT = 8,470
YT = 6,075

Now, again, these numbers are 4 years old, and will be updated in the 2021 census. But the proportions likely haven't changed dramatically even if the individual numbers have ebbed/flowed.

If we have almost as many students in Ontario than the rest of the country (minus Quebec, though we're double their numbers) COMBINED, we need to be looking at spending SO MUCH MORE money to make school re-entry safe.

If our Premier and Minister of Education insist on comparing Ontario to every other province, they need to stop being disingenuous about it.