Advocacy

In order to ensure the value of outdoor education is recognized beyond COEO, we have taken an active role in promoting the multiple benefits of this approach to learning.

To this end, the organization has recently taken steps to create:

Greater presence on social media
Raised awareness through publications in public media
Meetings with members of the provincial government to advocate on behalf of endangered outdoor programs and recent funding cuts to Ontario’s public education system
Statement on The Value of Outdoor Experiential Education (OEE)

We believe Outdoor Experiential Education (OEE) is a valuable educational investment that pays for itself.
• It will help in achieving the goals in Education That Works For You
• It improves youth physical and mental health
• It improves youth resilience to better prepare students for post-secondary education and the world of work
• It promotes lifelong emotional, physical and spiritual well-being

For these reasons, COEO advocates for the following government actions:
1. Acknowledge the value of OEE by preserving current levels of funding, and educational opportunities, for OEE in future school years;
2. Maintain a mix of local and further afield OEE locations
3. Preserve continued development of curriculum-based OEE through appropriately qualified OCTs, with the teaching carried out by both OCTs and instructor specialists.

CURRENT PROJECTS

The Council of Outdoor Educators of Ontario Condemns Closure of TDSB Outdoor Education Centres

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Use the arrow to expand the section to read a press release issued on behalf of The Council of Outdoor Educators of Ontario in response to the Toronto District School Board cutting outdoor education programs.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Council of Outdoor Educators of Ontario Condemns Closure of TDSB Outdoor Education Centres

Toronto, May 15, 2026. The Council of Outdoor Educators of Ontario is calling on the Ontario Government, Ontario’s Minister of Education Paul Calandra, and the provincially appointed supervisors overseeing the Toronto District School Board to immediately reverse devastating cuts to the Board’s outdoor education programs and facilities.

Under the recently announced restructuring plan, nearly all of the TDSB’s outdoor education centres, including both day-use and overnight sites, will be closed, with only two centres remaining operational. These remaining sites appear to be little more than symbolic placeholders, with significant concerns that they too may eventually face closure.

The TDSB has described these cuts as “right sizing” its outdoor education programming. In reality, this decision represents a dramatic dismantling of one of Canada’s largest and most important public outdoor education systems. Once these closures take effect, the TDSB, despite serving more students than Peel, Dufferin, Halton, and many other Ontario boards combined, will operate fewer outdoor education centres than those much smaller districts.

“These cuts are not modernization. They are abandonment,” said The Council of Outdoor Educators of Ontario. “Outdoor education is not an extra or a luxury. It is an essential part of a healthy, equitable, and future-focused public education system. It enhances learning for students and brings to life curriculum in ways not experienced through the four walls of a classroom.”

The Council emphasizes that these closures are not simply a local board decision. They are taking place under the authority of the Ontario government, which has assumed direct control over the governance and operations of the TDSB.

Research consistently demonstrates that outdoor and experiential education improves student mental health, physical well-being, academic engagement, leadership development, teamwork, and environmental literacy. Outdoor learning helps students build confidence, resilience, problem-solving skills, and meaningful relationships with the natural world; outcomes that cannot be replicated through screens or classroom walls alone. Outdoor, land-based learning helps build connection to the land as an act of Indigenous reconciliation.

For students in Toronto, these opportunities are especially critical.

Many TDSB students live in highly urbanized neighbourhoods with limited access to natural spaces, green infrastructure, or overnight outdoor experiences. For thousands of children, school-based outdoor education programs provide their only opportunity to paddle a canoe, hike a forest trail, learn around a campfire, study ecosystems firsthand, or spend meaningful time immersed in nature.

Eliminating these programs will disproportionately affect students from lower-income families and communities who cannot independently access camps, cottages, private outdoor programs, or travel opportunities.

“Spending time in nature should not become something available only to families who can afford it,” the Council stated. “Public education has a responsibility to ensure that every child, regardless of postal code or socio-economic status, has access to safe, high-quality outdoor and experiential learning.”

At a time when youth mental health challenges, climate anxiety, disconnection from nature, and sedentary lifestyles are increasing, Ontario should be expanding outdoor education opportunities, not dismantling them.

The Council of Outdoor Educators of Ontario urges the Province and the TDSB to:

Immediately halt the closure of outdoor education centres;
Restore stable funding for outdoor and experiential education programs;
Recognize outdoor education as an essential educational service;
Commit to equitable access for all Ontario students, particularly those in urban communities.

The Council is also encouraging educators, families, students, environmental organizations, and community leaders to speak out publicly and loudly in support of outdoor education and demand the preservation of these vital learning spaces.

Media Contact

Peggy Cheng, President

The Council of Outdoor Educators of Ontario

info@coeo.org

Take Action to Save TDSB’s Outdoor Ed Centres

1 – Email your MPP

Copy and paste the message template below (and in attachment) and email your MPP. Find your MPP’s contact here. Personalize if you want, or a direct copy is also great!

Use the arrow to expand the section to see the Letter to MPP Template.
Copy, paste, and send it to your MPP.

Dear (MPP’s name), May 22 2026

I am writing to urge the Ontario government to reverse the planned closures of Toronto District School Board (TDSB) outdoor education centres and to properly fund outdoor and experiential education for all students.

Under the direction of provincially appointed supervisors, the TDSB is closing nearly all of its outdoor education centres, leaving only two sites remaining. These decisions were made without meaningful public consultation with families, educators, students, or communities.

These closures are happening in the broader context of ongoing cuts and underfunding in public education. Outdoor education is not a luxury or an “extra.” It is an essential part of a healthy, equitable, and future-focused education system.

Research consistently shows that outdoor and experiential education improves student mental health, physical well-being, academic engagement, leadership skills, teamwork, environmental literacy, and connection to learning. Land-based and outdoor learning also supports Indigenous reconciliation by helping students build meaningful relationships with the land.

For many Toronto students, these programs provide their only opportunity to experience forests, lakes, trails, overnight learning, and hands-on environmental education. Without school programs, these experiences become accessible only to families who can afford camps, cottages, and private programs.

At a time when young people are facing rising mental health challenges, climate anxiety, and increasing disconnection from nature, Ontario should be expanding outdoor education opportunities, not dismantling them.

I urge you to:

Halt the closure of TDSB outdoor education centres;
Restore stable and adequate education funding;
Recognize outdoor education as an essential public education service;
Ensure equitable access to outdoor learning opportunities for all students.

Toronto students deserve better. Please act now to preserve these vital public learning spaces. I will continue to be in touch until changes are made. Thank you for your support and understanding that outdoor education is a key investment in the future of our local students and earth.

Sincerely,[NAME]
[POSTAL CODE]

2 – Sign the Petition

Print the petition page, sign it, get more signatures from your family, friends, and/or colleagues, and mail it to: 809-85 Emmett Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M6M 5A2 BY MAY 25!

Click to download the petition.

Use the arrow to expand the section to see notes below regarding petition guidelines.

Print the original, then photocopy blank copies – each printed/copied page is a self-contained valid petition because the full WHEREAS and request text appears above the signature lines on every sheet.
All signatures must be in wet ink, written directly on the page. Do not photocopy a sheet that already has signatures; those photocopies are not accepted.
Each signer prints their name, prints their address (city/town or postal code at minimum), and signs.
Petitioners must be Ontario residents; minors are allowed.
When you are done collecting, bundle all completed sheets and deliver them to 809-85 Emmett Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M6M 5A2 by May 25. They will deliver the bundle to the MPP’s constituency office or Queen’s Park office. They will present it in the House or table it with the clerk.
The government has 24 sessional days to respond once it’s formally presented.

3 – Share with Your Networks Widely and Immediately

Same old, Same old by Grant Linney

During the mid-1980’s, Cathy Beach (former COEO President) and John Aikman (former COEO Membership Secretary) warned the rest of us. Their boards in Peterborough and Hamilton respectively were among the first to close outdoor education programs and centres in the name of fiscal responsibility. Since then, we outdoor educators have endured repeated cuts to what proverbial bean counters refer to as “non-essential.” It seems to go in cycles. There are reprieves and relative calm. Then it starts all over again, including now. Good Grief!!

Outdoor educators (largely under the auspices of COEO) have fought back, each time learning to better articulate what Canadian author and former COEO member James Raffan refers to as a deep and enduring “knowledge of the heart.” We have taken great photos of kids engaged in all manner of outdoor experiential learning. We have written and published two comprehensive and compelling research summaries. We have written opinion pieces for The Globe and Mail and The Toronto Star. We have done our very best to convey the powerful and lasting connections between outdoor learning and the following:

· mental and physical wellbeing in their multiple dimensions

· curriculum understanding and retention

· character and team building

· the environmental connections that we so desperately need to address the most pressing global issues of our time. It’s quite simple: if we don’t spend time outdoors, if we continue to allow the extinction of outdoor experiences, we will not care enough to act, and we ourselves will be doomed to extinction. Am I overstating our case? I believe that the answer is an unequivocal no.

Over the past seventeen years, OEE in Ontario has been riding a positive wave of support that is directly related to COEO’s advocacy efforts with then Minister of Education Kathleen Wynne. When she was a trustee for the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), she was a vocal supporter of TOES, the Toronto Outdoor Education Schools. As provincial Minister of Education, she responded to our 2007 Research Summary as well as positive lobbying and translated this support into specific OEE funding for every public board in the province. Last fall, COEO was alarmed when the Progressive Conservative government rolled these monies into more general funding where the boards are obliged to pick and choose from

several competing priorities. And now, the other shoe has dropped. While the TDSB continues to value OEE, the Ford government has appointed a provincial investigator to review their books and, before the end of May, to make recommendations as to deep cuts that will cut the board’s significant deficit. This is on the heels of an already-completed Auditor General 18-month review of the TDSB which was tabled last fall. And, of course, additional provincial funding is not an option. The writing is on the wall, and it does not look at all good.

What COEO members can do:

· Regardless of your location in the province, you need to speak up for OEE and condemn our government’s deplorable removal of support for these vital and highly beneficial programs … this can be done with letters (better than emails) to your MPP as well as to media outlets

· If you do see news items re OEE, please write letters to the editor, e.g., COEO is hoping to get opinion pieces published both in The Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail

· Use your social media to spread the word

· Stay tuned for more news and potential courses of action

Submitted by longtime COEO member and mad old fart, Grant Linney

PAST PROJECTS

One of COEO’s five goals is to “promote the multiple values of outdoor education, both within and beyond our profession.” In the past, we tended to gloss over earnest advocacy to external stakeholders. We seemed to operate on an unspoken assumption that others would just “get it” when it comes to the great and lasting benefits of OEE, but multiple closures and withdrawals of funding have shown otherwise.

For the last twenty years or so, COEO has periodically hired the services of Sussex Strategy Group, a well-established and respected public affairs firm that supports businesses and associations in navigating and shaping public opinion, influencing government policy, and advocating on our behalf. Their support has yielded multiple tangible benefits, including the designation of specific funding for OEE by the Ontario Liberal government when Kathleen Wynne was our Minister of Education.

In light of the current Ontario government’s removal of such funding, COEO has once again deemed it necessary to make use of Sussex Strategy, and will continue to work with them throughout the next year. We’re grateful to have the support of the board’s Advocacy subcommittee leading this work, including past Presidents Liz Kirk and Grant Linney, as well as current BOD members Hilary Coburn, Peggy Cheng, and Devin Mutic.

The Ontario government recently launched a public consultation about how to ensure the health benefits of nature are fully realized for all Ontarians. This is part of the Made-in-Ontario Environment Plan commitment to provide people with more opportunities to enjoy provincial parks and support the worldwide Healthy Parks Healthy People movement.

On August 16th, 2019, Jeff Yurek, Ontario’s Minister of Environment, Conservation and Parks, sent a letter to each of the province’s 36 Conservation Authorities, ordering them to “wind down” unnecessary programs that do not relate to their “core mandate.” At least one Conservation Authority had already chosen to cut their Children’s Environmental Education program in response to funding cuts. Responses to this letter include: Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority’s CAO Doug Hevenor’s response to Minister Yurek’s letter and COEO’s An Open Letter of Support for Conservation Authority Staff. Please take a minute to let your local Conservation Authority and MPP know how much you value environmental education programs and don’t want to see them cut from the core mandate of Ontario’s Conservation Authorities.

You can read our July 16th, 2019, submission to Minister of Education Stephen Lecce here: Letter to Minister Lecce from COEO.

Thank you to Marit Stiles, NDP Official Opposition Critic for Education, for meeting with us and for writing an excellent Letter of Support for Outdoor Education Centres, June 28 2019

Want to get involved in advocating for OEE in Ontario? Please contact your local MPP and request that they write a letter of support, with similar requests for action from the new Minister of Education, Stephen Lecce. https://www.ola.org/en/get-involved/contact-mpp

Take a minute to read and share the recent Op-Ed article published on July 15th, 2019, in the Toronto Star entitled The Value of Outdoor Education. Maybe you can write a similar article about your OEE experience and submit it to a local media outlet?

Please follow our social media accounts and keep an eye on local media as we continue our advocacy efforts.

Twitter (@COEOoutdoors https://twitter.com/coeooutdoors)

Instagram (@COEOoutdoors https://www.instagram.com/coeooutdoors/)

Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/coeo.org/)