Ontario’s education minister says he is introducing a new process for building schools that will cut timelines in half.

Stephen Lecce says the average time it takes to build a school is between four and seven years, which is too long to meet the needs of Ontario’s quickly growing population.

He says the new strategy includes standardizing designs of new schools, to cut down on planning time, and reducing approval timelines.

Lecce says the province will prioritize projects that are “shovel ready,” and that have realistic costs and timelines.

Ontario has earmarked about $15 billion over 10 years for new school construction.

Lecce says the last time the process was “meaningfully overhauled” was more than a decade ago.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 11, 2023.