Our Advocacy

In today's evolving landscape, systemic advocacy for Outdoor and Environmental Education (OEE) is more vital than ever. Kick off your Council of Outdoor Educators of Ontario (COEO) conference weekend with "Cultivating the Heart Connection: Strategic Advocacy for OEE in Ontario" on Friday, Sept 25 (2:00–5:30 PM) at Camp Muskoka!
Through an inspiring virtual keynote with international advocate and outdoor learning change agent, James Bartram, who is regional councillor for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Advisory Chair for the National Framework for Environmental Learning (NFEL), followed by facilitated breakout sessions, and group problem-solving, we will collaborate to create an actionable advocacy framework that elevates OEE across Ontario school boards and the Ministry of Education. 
Your insights will directly shape COEO's 3–5 year provincial advocacy strategy and a new public toolkit!

 When: Friday, September 25 | 2:00 PM – 5:30 PM
 Where: Camp MuskokaDescription text goes here

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.

CURRENT PROJECTS – The Council of Outdoor Educators of Ontario Condemns Closure of TDSB Outdoor Education Centres

In order to ensure the value of outdoor education is recognized beyond COEO, we take an active role in promoting the multiple benefits of this approach to learning. We are doing so, through:

• Increasing our presence on social media

• Raising awareness through publications in public media

• Creating and attending 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

• Providing statements on The Value of Outdoor Experiential Education (OEE)

We believe Outdoor Experiential Education (OEE) is a valuable educational investment that is good in and of itself.

• It improves youth physical and mental health; and resiliency that better prepares students for post-secondary education and the world of work

• It promotes lifelong emotional, physical and spiritual well-being of participants

• It promotes meaningful relationships with, and care for, our more-than-human world which is crucial during the ongoing global climate crisis 

• It helps achieve the goals listed in Education That Works For You

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.

COEO Advocacy Updates 

• Letter writing campaign - 3 template letters here -Premier Ford, Minister of Ed Calandra, your MPP

• How to Meet with your MPP - tips and guidance page here.

• Share your OE story - CBC documentary initiative info here -needing editors

• Mike Schreiner's video: Advocating for TOES, TRC connections

• Chief La Rocca, Mississaugas of Skugog Island First Nation and Lawyer -led 39 Anishinabek Nation chiefs to sign letter of support for TDSB TOES

*Petition to Protect TDSB OE Centres to Legislative Assembly-  MPP Chris Glover shared 5,000+ signaturesescription text goes here

According to statements issued by COEO President Peggy Cheng and previous COEO President Grant Linney, extensive research shows that teacher-led experiences in the outdoors significantly improve youth mental health, build resilience, enhance capacity for literacy and numeracy learning and foster environmental literacy. Demonstrators argued that in an era dominated by excessive screen time and climate anxiety, students need a direct, physical connection to the natural world more than ever.Description text goes here

Current, past, and potential future members of the COEO community attended our town hall hosted online via zoom. The group discussed and strategized regarding the urgent need for OEE advocacy in the wake of the spring 2026 TDSB deep funding cuts for outdoor education programming, staff and spaces!

TDSB budget presentation and public consultation with Parent Involvement Advisory Committee (PIAC) Meeting 

COEO members attended this meeting to advocate for OEE. 

May 15, 2026

Press release May 15- opposing cuts to TDSB outdoor education centres

[Frolic:  Button - Read more about COEOs Past Advocacy Projects - this material moved to publication library]

The Ontario government recently launched apublic consultation about how to ensure the health benefits of nature are fully realized for all Ontarians. This is part of theMade-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 aletterto 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 CAODoug Hevenor’s response to Minister Yurek’s letter and COEO’sAn Open Letter of Support for Conservation Authority Staff. Please take a minute to let yourlocal Conservation Authority andMPP 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 excellentLetter 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 entitledThe Value of Outdoor Education. Maybe you can write a similar article about your OEE experience and submit it to a local media outlet?

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

• Reach out to your MPP

• 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