Every spring for 17 years, Simon Rogers has navigated the Toronto District School Board’s “labyrinthine” booking system to get an annual permit to play pickup basketball Saturdays at Central Technical School with 14 friends.
The process has long been “so complicated” and filled with jargon — one year, he said he needed a sworn affidavit that the games were not for commercial purposes. But this year has brought a surprise that may be the “death knell” for the group.
The Toronto and York Region public boards have announced a price increase for annual permits to use school space for community activities. This comes after the TDSB reassessed who qualifies for subsidies that can lower these costs. For some permit holders like Rogers, these changes have led to astronomical increases that are forcing groups to evaluate whether they can continue.
The new price for Rogers’ friends to play pickup basketball? It’s nearly tripled, from $3,400 a year to $9,818.
Cost of caretaking on weekends now more expensive
There is something special about the gym at Central Tech, Rogers said in an email.
“The floors have dead spots. It gets super hot when the seasons change. The light comes through the high windows and you have to watch for the blind spots on defence. There’s a lot of nostalgia about the space. We have our little rituals and routines around sweeping the floors and shoot-around before we play. I don’t think it will have the same feel if we have to move to another gym.”
The TDSB says it has raised prices to correspond with an “inflationary increase” of 2.4 per cent and “the need to cover the true cost of caretaking during weekend permits,” said Emma Moynihan, senior communications adviser for the board.
The largest increase for Rogers comes from these updated caretaking fees, he said. His team is now being charged for an hour before and an hour after their permit time, he said, as well as the game time.
Before this year, the cost of the two-hour rental was roughly $95 a game. With these changes, the cost has gone up to $272 a game, $18 per person.
The new fee can’t be waived, and Rogers was advised to consider “exploring weekday bookings” by the TDSB Permit Unit, in emails shared with the Star.
“Historically, weekend facility rental fees were intended to recover the full cost of providing access to school facilities. However, over recent years, fees have not kept pace,” said Moynihan, explaining that staff pulled hundreds of thousands of dollars from other areas of the TDSB to offset these costs, a process that “cannot be continued.”
Weekend caretaking rates are standardized across facilities per a fee schedule, but charges are calculated based on the specific needs of each permit, including setting up and resetting spaces, monitoring facility access, as well as opening and closing procedures for each permitted time slot, said Moynihan.
Rogers said when he learned how expensive the permit would become, he contacted the permit office, the Education Ministry, and the now-retired TDSB executive officer for facilities and planning. Rogers said he was ignored, redirected and ultimately told he wouldn’t get any help.
“This is kind of ridiculous,” he said. “I’ve been booking for 17 years, and suddenly you’re tripling my fees … You didn’t talk to us? Are we not stakeholders? What’s happening here? Because this is nonsense.”
Children’s programming also sees a price hike
When applying for a permit, groups are classified in different categories and receive different levels of subsidies. The highest subsidy category, A1, is “intended for community groups that serve children, youth and seniors and that either offer programs free of charge or only charge fees necessary to cover permit costs.”
Titans Volleyball, a non-profit that has hosted house and club leagues for the past 50 years, has long been in the A1 category, said executive director Blair Mackintosh. But last year, as a result of a TDSB audit of all A1 clients, Titans moved to B1 and a lower subsidy. The TDSB told Mackintosh it believed the Titans were making over $300,000 in revenue across all of its permits by charging players $280 for the year.
Mackintosh said that despite the listed price to join the league, which was increased by $40 following the TDSB’s reassessment, they were not generating that kind of revenue. In fact, most players do not pay to participate in the volleyball program, he said.
Unlike Rogers, who only has one permit, Titans Volleyball had 17 annual TDSB permits to host games for more than 800 youth. In 2025, with two weeks’ notice, Mackintosh said he was told the cost of their permits, which was about $50,000 in 2024, would rise to $300,000. This year, their costs have gone up again, though not as drastically, he said. Titans has yet to calculate the final costs of permits, but has closed some programs and moved others to other boards, he said.
Mackintosh said prices for Titans permits in other school boards have also increased. In the Toronto Catholic District School Board, permits that used to cost “a couple thousand” have ballooned to about $15,000. A spokesperson from the TCDSB said the board has updated its fee structure as part of its annual cost-recovery process and to reflect increased operating and maintenance costs.
“I’ve fought all year to try and get them to change it,” he said. “They steadfastly refused and just ignored me, and now we’re back in the same boat.”
“My community and my membership can’t afford for me to suddenly charge kids thousands of dollars a year to cover this increase,” he said. “It’s mind-blowing.”
“Staff continue to support individual permit holders to consider all options that are available to them, including exploring cost-effective or alternative booking options like weekday permits,” said TDSB’s Moynihan in a statement to the Star.
“Non-profit groups may also access reduced costs for spaces, should they meet eligibility requirements.”
York Region also increasing prices
Meanwhile, the York Region District School Board increased prices to $35 an hour per participant, up from $5.
The change is due to declining enrolment, and the board “no longer has flexibility” to subsidize permit fees, said spokesperson Licinio Miguelo.
“To ensure that funds intended for students and programs are properly allocated to support schools and classrooms, permit fees have been adjusted to reflect their actual costs,” said Miguelo. “This results in permits being cost-neutral for the board.
“We recognize that this may be difficult for some community organizations and we remain committed to supporting community partnerships.”
Last month, YorkRegion.com reported that one basketball organization saw their bill to use a Markham high school gym on Saturday mornings rise from about $6,600 a year to nearly $27,000 for 2026-27.
Earlier this summer, the TDSB’s permit process for the upcoming academic year stalled. The application deadline was normally June 1, but the portal was closed until July 28.
Groups were told the delay was because the board is under provincial supervision.
Eight school boards, including the TDSB and TCDSB, are currently under supervision by the Ministry of Education, which has accused them of financial mismanagement.
Note: This article was updated from a previously published version that incorrectly said YRDSB was under provincial supervision.
