Chris Selley: Let the kids sweat a little. Schools have bigger problems than A/C

National Post

16 hours ago

In 2018, the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) staff estimated the cost of air conditioning all its schools at roughly $400 million — so, nearly $500 million in 2025 dollars — plus millions more in annual maintenance and electricity bills. It described the task as 'virtually impossible.' Last week, the Hamilton Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB) staff pegged the cost to air condition its own schools at $200 million, while describing the job as only 'relatively impossible.'
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By rights, those numbers — which you can safely double to get nearer the actual cost — would put the issue to bed. But they are back in the news because it was quite hot in southern Ontario and Quebec for two days this week. And some people are remarkably passionate about a lack of air conditioning, at least once or twice a year. '(Students) have to endure real harms to their well-being,' we read in the Toronto Star. 'A temperature-safe environment should be a given. A right,' we read in The Globe and Mail.
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But surely all would agree the TDSB, HWDSB and every other Canadian school board has far bigger priorities than saving students and staff a few days of discomfort in late June and early September. Certainly our Junes and Septembers are getting warmer on average, but the temperatures we saw in Toronto this week — a high of 35 C on Monday and Tuesday — were not unprecedented in the time before air conditioning.
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We coped. We should be able to cope even better now that we don't have to live all day long in the sweltering heat: Even if we don't have air conditioning at home, there are public places to go for a break.
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I can just hear people saying, 'nothing is too expensive for our kids.' If nothing were too expensive for our kids, relatively wealthy parents wouldn't be donating all sorts of supplies to their kids' public schools. (Ironically, one of the things parents can't donate is air conditioners. The board cites concerns over the electricity supply and — more dubiously — proper installation.)
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In real life, money is finite. And there would be tremendous opportunity costs to spending $500 million (or likely far more) on alleviating a few days of moistened brows, not even once every year. You don't have to think $500 million is a reasonable estimate — it probably isn't — but you should be 100 per cent sure it would get spent. The TDSB pays $150 to install a pencil sharpener, for heaven's sake.
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I was curious how the media covered Toronto's all-time record heat wave, in 1936. 'Heat toll 22 dead; mercury reaches 103.7 (F),' was the Toronto Daily Star's banner headline on July 10. We have a right to live better than we did in 1936 — and we do! — but perhaps that puts things in some perspective.