Ontario Government: 1)Ontario allowing pharmacists to treat more conditions, administer more vaccines; 2)Ontario auditor flags shortages of educational assistants for special needs students; 3)Ontario goverment providing $29.9M to fund Warnica P.S. replacement; 4)Codrington Public School marks 75 years with walk down memory lane; 5)(Updated) Commercial trucker training and licensing problematic in Ontario: auditor general; 6)Breaking ground: Construction begins on Bradford Bypass to ease gridlock

1)Ontario allowing pharmacists to treat more conditions, administer more vaccines

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Canadian Press Staff, May 11, 2026

Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones speaking at Queen’s Park in Toronto during a health care announcement.

Ontario pharmacists will soon be allowed to administer more vaccines and treat more common ailments, as part of the government’s continuing moves to expand their scope of practice.

Health Minister Sylvia Jones says it will help people get faster access to care and ease pressure on primary care and emergency departments.

Starting this July, pharmacists will be able to give vaccinations for tetanus, whooping cough, diphtheria, respiratory syncytial virus, shingles and pneumococcal vaccines.

The provincial government has already allowed pharmacists to assess and treat 19 common ailments, and is now planning to add nine more, including head lice, nasal congestion, ringworm and warts.

Jones says there are plans to add five more to that list in early 2027.

The government has also directed Ontario’s regulatory colleges for optometrists, physiotherapists, chiropractors, dental hygienists, denturists, and audiologists and speech-language pathologists to develop frameworks for expansions to those professions’ scopes of practice.

2)Ontario auditor flags shortages of educational assistants for special needs students

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Allison Jones, May 12, 2026

The number of Ontario students with special education needs is growing faster than overall enrolment, and some schools do not have enough educational assistants either full-time or on a daily basis, the province’s auditor general has found.

In a report released Tuesday on special education, auditor general Shelley Spence said that while government funding for special education has increased by 15 per cent between 2019-20 and 2023-24, on pace with inflation, total school board special education spending increased by 19 per cent.

Yet, schools are also experiencing shortages of educational assistants who provide supports to students with special needs, with half of all elementary schools in one board understaffed, Spence found.

As well, school boards are seeing absence rates among EAs that are high and rising, the report said, with an average 18 per cent absence rate in the 2023-24 school year, compared to 10 per cent for special education teachers and 11 per cent for other teachers.

“We consistently heard that student needs had become increasingly complex,” Spence wrote in the report.

“Without adequate staffing, this led to difficulty managing high-needs students in large classrooms and behavioural challenges. For EAs especially, it resulted in heightened stress, more frequent physical injuries and a corresponding high rate of absenteeism.”

When educational assistants are absent, there are often no qualified temporary replacements available, Spence said. Her audit looked at three school boards in particular – Peel District School Board, Toronto Catholic District School Board and Upper Canada District School Board in eastern Ontario.

Educational assistant absences at those boards went unfilled between 49 and 72 per cent of the time, the audit found.

“Unfilled absences can result in students being left without the assistance they need to participate safely and meaningfully in classroom activities,” Spence wrote in the report.

Spence found there are also wide ranges of EA availability even within the same board. For example, some schools in the Peel board had nine high-needs students per educational assistant while others had one-to-one support.

3) Ontario goverment providing $29.9M to fund Warnica P.S. replacement

Courtesy Barrie360.com

By Julius Hern, May 8, 2026

A new Warnica Public School is coming to Barrie after the Ontario government announced a $29.9-million investment toward replacing the aging elementary school.

The funding, announced Friday at the aging school building by Barrie-Innisfil MPP Andrea Khanjin, is part of a broader $1.6-billion provincial school construction package and is expected to create 665 student spaces for families in the growing south-end community. That’s roughly double Warnica’s existing footprint.

The replacement is to be built on the school’s existing site and is intended to help address enrollment pressures while modernizing learning spaces for students.

“As someone who grew up in Barrie, I’ve seen the growth. I know schools are the fabric,” Khanjin said. “When we reflect on what we did in our communities, we often reflect on our school experiences.”

For the last two years, the replacement project has been atop Simcoe County District School Board’s (SCDSB) capital priorities list, with the building being described as in dire need of a rebuild.

Representatives from the board say they hope construction will begin within the next one to two years, pending development application approval by the City of Barrie.

“Many of our schools are facing increasing accommodation pressures and many of our buildings are aging,” said SCDSB chair Brandy Rafeek. “Investments like this are so important because they help ensure students have modern, welcome, learning environments that can continue to meet the needs of growing communities.”

The school opened on Warnica Road in Barrie in 1964, and since then it has aged considerably, and become incompatible with current accessibility expectations.

“There are a lot of issues with accessibility in this building that unless we rebuild, we really could not fix,” Dawn Stephens, SCDSB director of education, told Barrie360. It would cost us more in trying to fix it and maintain it than it would be to ask or to look for dollars for a rebuild.”

Childcare space is not a part of the preliminary plans for the replacement, while Stephens says the announcement kickstarts the process of looking for community partnership for various parts of the building.

For local families, the focus is likely to be on relieving pressure at the existing school and replacing an older building with a newer facility designed for long-term growth.

Even with the doubling of student spaces, the enrollment boundaries are not expected to be changed, mainly due to the school’s status as a French immersion institution.

Principal Sean Cappadocia says his role has mainly been to advocate for his students to the school board, and he’s happy to see the ball rolling on improvements.

“When you have a vision such as, in your own gym—you’re going to want to put new sound systems in, new projectors in—you have that in the back of your mind, ‘how long are we going to be in this building?'” he told Barrie360. “Now we know there’s a plan in place, it adds a lot of comfort knowing where we’re going.”

The Ontario government says it is investing heavily in school infrastructure across the province, with funding this year supporting 79 projects that include new schools, additions and retrofits. In total, those projects are set to add more than 29,000 student spaces and over 1,900 licensed childcare spaces.

The funding is being delivered through Ontario’s Capital Priorities program, which supports new school construction, additions, renovations and property purchases.

The province says it plans to invest more than $22 billion over the next decade on school construction, renewal and improvement projects across Ontario.

4)Codrington Public School marks 75 years with walk down memory lane

Courtesy Barrie360.com

By Staff, May 12, 2026

Generations of students, staff and families have been invited to step back in time as Codrington Public School celebrates a major milestone.

The Barrie school will mark its 75th anniversary today (May 12) with a community celebration that brings together past and present members of the Codrington PS family. The event runs from 4 to 5 p.m. and includes student performances, displays highlighting each decade of the school’s history and time for alumni to reconnect and reminisce.

For Principal Christopher Kemp, the anniversary has underscored just how deeply rooted the school is in the community.

“The history, I think, is the biggest thing,” Kemp said. “I’ve been receiving emails from a Codrington Public alumni group that has about 600 members, including some of the original people that started at the school in 1951. I’ve got some emails, some stories, and some connections to staff.”

He said the stories have given him a new perspective as a new principal at Codrington.

“It’s incredible the history of this building in this community and the things that this building has done for this community as it was building up,” Kemp said. “So it’s been a great historical connection for me being a principal in the 2020s.”

A key part of the celebration is a “walk down memory lane,” created by students in the junior and intermediate grades. Classrooms throughout the school have been transformed to showcase different decades, starting in the 1950s and progressing through to the present day.

“The kids have all taken part in it, and they have it done by the decades, starting from the 50s,” Kemp explained. “I connected the alumni group, so they’ve been sending pictures from the 50s, 60s, all the way up to the 2020s.”

Each classroom features a mix of historical context and personal connections, including photos of former and current students.

“They’ve done a connection to the actual decade where they have a display about the things that happened in the decade, and then pictures of our students and our alumni inside the classrooms that have all the great things that have happened at Codrington over the last 75 years,” Kemp said.

With the school opening in the early 1950s, Kemp said the anniversary is a reminder of how quickly time passes — and how strong family ties to the school remain.

“I can’t imagine for some of the people in this community and the connections from the families and the grandparents and even great-grandparents that have gone to this school in the 50s,” he said. “So it’s incredible, the connections in this community and the feeling of community that this school has always had.”

The formal portion of the celebration includes musical performances by the school choir and remarks from Simcoe County District School Board representatives and local dignitaries. Cake and refreshments will be served in the lobby, followed by time for guests to explore the decade-themed classrooms.

Codrington Public School is located at 217 Codrington St. in Barrie, and all members of the school community — past and present — are invited to attend.

5)(Updated) Commercial trucker training and licensing problematic in Ontario: auditor general

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Liam Casey, May 12, 2026

Ontario is not effectively monitoring commercial truck driver training and licensing regimes, leading to many unqualified drivers on the roads, the province’s auditor general found in a special report released Tuesday.

Shelley Spence said her office has uncovered career colleges that have cut corners on training hours and skills, and found little oversight from two provincial ministries. She also found that six unregistered private career colleges that were investigated by the province were still booking tests and handing out driver training certificates despite not being allowed to do so.

The auditor filed 13 recommendations to the province, which has accepted all of them.

“We need to make sure as a government that we’re training people correctly,” Spence said, though she noted most truck drivers on the province’s roads are trained.

Commercial truck drivers account for a disproportionate number of fatalities on Ontario’s roads and the problem is especially acute in northern Ontario.

The auditor sent several people undercover as driving students at six training providers over six months last year.

“We found that two private career colleges delivered 59.5 and 81 hours of the required minimum of 103.5 training hours,” Spence wrote. “Two of our students were not taught key truck driving elements such as left turns at major intersections, reverse parking and emergency stopping.”

Spence cautioned that she cannot extrapolate the findings to the rest of the province, but it remains a cautionary tale.

“I will say that it is a problem and that putting controls in place, like we’re recommending, to ensure that students are actually getting the training required is what the ministries that have this oversight should be looking for.”

Spence noted that between 2019 and 2024 the Ministry of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security “found that three registered private career colleges had falsified or altered student training records, four did not have records to demonstrate that some or all of their students had completed the required (entry level training) components, and three did not teach all of the required components.”

But the auditor general found the ministry’s inspection regime was lacking and, as of March 2025, had never inspected 54 of the 216 registered private career colleges offering entry level commercial truck training.

6)Breaking ground: Construction begins on Bradford Bypass to ease gridlock

Courtesy Barrie360.com

By Staff, May 15, 2026

The Ontario government has officially launched major construction on the long-awaited Bradford Bypass, marking what provincial leaders are calling a significant step toward reducing congestion and improving travel times across York Region and Simcoe County.

Once complete, the new four-lane highway is expected to cut travel times by up to 35 minutes, offering relief to commuters who regularly navigate some of the busiest routes in North America. The project will also support approximately 2,200 jobs annually and contribute up to $286 million to Ontario’s economy.

“With major construction underway on the Bradford Bypass, we’ve reached a historic milestone in our plan to give relief to commuters from some of the most congested highways in North America,” said Premier Doug Ford. “We will continue to invest in our $236 billion plan to build, including the Bradford Bypass, Highway 413 and the 401 tunnel, saving drivers and businesses across Ontario time and money.”

The Bradford Bypass is a key component of the province’s broader infrastructure strategy, aimed at addressing gridlock that officials say costs Ontario up to $56 billion annually.

“Under the leadership of Premier Ford, our government continues to fight gridlock that costs Ontario up to $56 billion a year,” said Prabmeet Sarkaria, Minister of Transportation. “The Bradford Bypass will provide much-needed relief to drivers in York Region and Simcoe County, support thousands of good-paying jobs and keep people and goods moving in one of Ontario’s fastest-growing regions.”

Work is currently underway on the west section of the bypass, with crews breaking ground at Sideroad 10. This phase includes building a divided highway stretching from west of Artesian Industrial Parkway to Highway 400.

Key elements of this phase include:

New interchanges at Sideroad 10 and County Road 4

Replacement of the bridge at Highway 400 and Line 9

Construction of a new freeway-to-freeway interchange connecting the bypass to Highway 400

The full project spans 16.3 kilometres, eventually linking Highway 400 in the west to Highway 404 in the east.

Bradford West Gwillimbury Mayor James Leduc welcomed the start of construction, highlighting its importance to the growing community. “Breaking ground on the west section of the Bradford Bypass is a significant milestone for our community and our region. As Bradford West Gwillimbury continues to grow, investments like these are essential to reducing congestion, improving travel times and supporting economic opportunity. We thank the province for their continued partnership and commitment to building stronger connections between communities.”

The province says the Bradford Bypass – officially designated as Highway 425 – will play a vital role in supporting significant population growth in the surrounding regions.

York Region’s population is projected to reach 1.8 million by 2041, while Simcoe County is expected to grow to 416,000 residents by 2031. Officials say the new highway will help meet increasing travel demand as more people move into the area.

Crews have already completed tree clearing along the west section and constructed a temporary detour at Sideroad 10 to allow bridge and interchange work to proceed.

The Bradford Bypass is one piece of Ontario’s larger commitment to transportation infrastructure, with more than $31 billion being invested to build, repair and expand highways, roads and bridges across the province.

Design work is already underway on the central and eastern sections of the bypass, with a program management consultant overseeing the full project.

Once finished, the Bradford Bypass is expected to significantly improve regional connectivity, reduce commute times and support economic growth—offering both immediate construction benefits and long-term transportation solutions.

For residents and commuters in York Region and Simcoe County, the project represents a long-anticipated step toward faster, more reliable travel.