The supervisors the Ford government appointed with direction to bring order and financial restraint to Ontario school boards are billing the province substantially different sums — with one charging almost $240,000 for six months of work.

New invoices obtained by Global News using freedom of information laws show a lack of uniformity in how supervisors appointed by Education Minister Paul Calandra are working and being compensated.

The documents cover roughly a six month period from late April to the end of October, offering an insight into the differing costs of the first period of school board supervision.

The government said the different fees and work schedules for supervisors were because their work is not “one-size-fits-all, and neither is the level of time required at each board.”

Supervisors sent in

Shortly after being appointed education minister last year, Calandra began to take direct control of some school boards.

The province sent a supervisor to the Thames Valley District School Board at the end of April, before appointing supervisors at four boards in Toronto, Ottawa and Peel Region at the end of June.

Under the agreement signed with the province, supervisors can bill up to 3.5 days per week at $2,000 per day. That caps to 50 weeks for a maximum of $350,000 per year.

Back in June, Calandra said he was dispatching the supervisors to bring stability to boards that had lost focus.

“Each of these boards has failed in its responsibilities to parents and students by losing sight of its core mission — ensuring student success,” Calandra said at the time in a statement.

“I will take action to restore focus, rebuild trust and put students first.”

But billing from the supervisors over their first few months in charge of the boards shows the five individuals appointed — including a former Progressive Conservative MPP — have approached the role vastly differently.

The four supervisors appointed at the same time in June, for example, have worked for different lengths of time since. One charged for 63.5 days, another for 55.25. One more bill was for 54 days, and the final supervisor charged for just 46.5.

Three of the five also appear to be completing the work through their companies and charging an extra 13 per cent in sales tax on top of their agreed rate, while two seem not to be adding tax to their invoices.

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While Calandra said supervisors would earn $350,000 per year, those billing HST could cost the government almost $400,000. They’re also eligible for thousands in expenses.

“I thought the supervisor meant $350,000 a year, and I feel like this is very similar to learning that it was $350,000 a year, plus a $40,000 expense account,” Ontario NDP MPP Chandra Pasma said.

“It seems like the minister’s first answer was very careful not to include all the details.”

The different approaches may be most pronounced in Toronto, where two supervisors were appointed to run the Catholic and public boards on the same day. Documents show they have worked vastly different schedules.

Between late June and the end of October, the supervisor at Toronto District School Board billed the taxpayer for 63.5 days at a base rate of $127,000, plus $16,510 in harmonized sales tax.

The Toronto Catholic supervisor, meanwhile, worked 46.5 days, which would equate to $93,000 in total, and didn’t add tax.

One critic suggested the discrepancy showed supervisors were a political play rather than a move to improve school boards.

“There’s no accountability in it; you can say one’s working harder than the other,” Ontario Liberal interim leader John Fraser said.

“This is all political cover, it’s shenanigans. The most identifiable commonality between all these supervisors are their Tory insiders. None of them have really any experience in education. It just further proves that this is a political exercise by the government to cover their tracks.”

Supervisors were appointed to the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board and Ottawa-Carleton at the same time as the Toronto boards and worked roughly 55 days each. The Peel Region supervisor didn’t charge HST, while Ottawa’s did.

A spokesperson for the Minister of Education said the varying days worked was a result of the different boards they had taken over.

“Supervisors are appointed to restore stability, accountability and sound governance at school boards facing serious financial or governance challenges,” they wrote in a statement.

“Some supervisors are working within boards that have stronger administrative capacity already in place, while other boards require significant, hands-on oversight to fix serious governance and financial issues.”

They did not address the issue of why some appeared to have charged HST on top of their rates.

The records also show the supervisor at Dufferin-Peel initially claimed 1,600 km for commuting to and from the job.

The government said that officials informed the supervisor that the claim could be made through expenses, but that it would be a relatively complicated process, and he withdrew the expense.

The supervisor at the Thames Valley District School Board, who was appointed almost two months before the Toronto supervisors, charged $100,000-plus more than any other supervisor.

He billed for 104.5 days between the end of April and the end of October. That would average roughly four days of work each week.

In total, the supervisor charged $209,000 over that period, plus another $27,170 in HST for a total of $236,170.