Ontario is opening 35 new and expanded schools this fall as negotiations with teacher unions over a new contract have stalled.

More than $1-billion was spent on the projects, which will create 18,300 more student spaces and more than 1,100 childcare spaces, Education Minister Paul Calandra said at a press conference on Thursday.

The projects are part of a 10-year, $30-billion plan to build, expand and renew schools across the province, he said.

“As Minister of Education, my focus is clear: putting student achievement first and giving every student the opportunity to succeed,” he said. “But with those investments comes expectation that every dollar is used responsibly, and the projects are delivered for students and families.”

The new and expanded schools will help to alleviate the considerable growth needs identified in a report by the Financial Accountability Office of Ontario in 2024.

That report said that the costs to bring all school buildings into a state of good repair, otherwise known as the infrastructure backlog, was $6.5-billion.

It also estimated that 172,187 new student spaces will need to be built by 2033-34 to address capacity pressures. To accommodate that growth, the province would have to build the equivalent of 227 new schools at a total cost of $9.8-billion over 10 years.

NDP education critic Chandra Pasma said the government’s new investments fall well short of meeting students’ needs, including by reducing class sizes and repairing schools that are not safe.

“The minister is taking a victory lap for what is a drop in the bucket compared to what the actual needs of our children are,” Ms. Pasma said.

“Our kids are in larger class sizes without the adequate supports that they need to succeed in our schools, and our schools are increasingly unsafe, including just the state of repair of many of them, and yet his funding is once again far, far below the rate of inflation,” she said.

The minister is ignoring the repairs that need to be made to many schools in the province that are in an unfit state for student safety and learning, Ms. Pasma said.

“Constructing new schools is great, but we also have to take care of the ones that we already have. And when our kids are in leaky school buildings with moulds, with heat that doesn’t always work properly, that’s just not good enough,” she said.

The 1,130 new licensed childcare spaces that are part of Thursday’s announcement represent good news, but Ontario needs a multiyear expansion plan to identify where childcare spaces are needed, said Martha Friendly, executive director of the Childcare Resource and Research Unit, a Toronto-based think tank.

“What about the communities that are not having a new school built? How are they going to expand childcare?” she said. “If the goal is to have more childcare spaces in places where people need them and can use them, there’s a lot more data and planning that needs to go into it.”

Thursday’s announcement comes as negotiations between the province and teachers’ unions have reached an impasse, while current education contracts are set to expire at the end of August.

Bargaining talks with the province have been paused for every union except the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association over a dispute regarding which issues are negotiated with the province at a centralized versus a local level.

Earlier this week, teachers’ unions said strike action is not off the table if they cannot reach a deal with the province.

Mr. Calandra said Thursday he is “optimistic” a deal will be reached.

“We remain committed to get a negotiated settlement so that teachers have certainty, parents have certainty and students have the best opportunity to succeed,” he said.

He added that he does not expect the breakdown in negotiations will result in a strike.

“The year will start as scheduled, and it is my expectation that kids will be in the classroom for a very long time. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t expect the year to be completed and students to be in classroom the entire time.”