Ontario education workers sound alarm over EA shortage ahead of August contract talks

Ontario education workers and parents are raising alarm bells over a province-wide shortage of educational assistants (EAs) as unions prepare to negotiate new contracts ahead of an August 31 deadline.

Because schools are short-staffed, advocates say care is "rationed" across multiple classrooms, leaving vulnerable students without steady support. Pamela Boniferro, President of the Dufferin-Peel Education Resource Workers' Association, said Toronto that provincial funding ignores the importance of human support over physical resources. "You could put an educator in front of a student with no paper, no pencil, no nothing, and the student will learn," she said. "But you can put pencil and paper in front of a student with no EA, and nothing is going to take place."

The province says it has increased annual education funding to a record $30.6 billion and supported hiring over 4,500 additional EAs, but staffing decisions ultimately rest with local school boards. For the sector, the core problem is retention. An abundance of daily "fail-to-fills"—absences that go completely uncovered because no supply staff are available—signals that a collapse in college enrollment has left boards with a genuine recruitment crisis.

Lisa Weiler Haskins, president of the Educational Assistants Association, pointed to one specific EA split across four classrooms. "For that hour a day that she's in there with this grade three student, it is magnificent," she said. "And everybody's learning, him and the other children. But when she leaves, that student isn't getting the support. And so he's acting out ... and the teachers can't teach."

When high-needs students are left unsupported, the resulting distress frequently forces "classroom evacuations," Weiler Haskins said—a traumatic disruption where entire classes are moved into hallways while staff manage a dysregulated child.

Unions negotiating a unified contract are fighting to pivot bargaining toward mandatory staffing ratios and permanent job security over standard wage hikes.