Ontario elementary teachers will be able to buy school supplies from Staples starting this fall. The Ontario government says it has chosen Staples as the vendor for its Classroom Supplies Fund, which will see teachers be given $750 a year to spend on supplies. Emma Testani, the press secretary for Education Minister Paul Calandra, said in a statement to CP24 on Thursday that Staples was chosen “after an open, fair and competitive process” by Supply Ontario. Testani noted that Staples presented competitive pricing with half the price of the next bidder. “Staples Canada has demonstrated it has the province-wide infrastructure, distribution network, technology and customer support needed to reliably deliver large quantities of classroom supplies to teachers quickly across Ontario, including to rural, Northern, remote and fly-in communities,” Testani said, adding that the company which employs thousands in the province meets the government’s Buy Ontario requirements. The province announced the program in March and said it was aimed at preventing teachers from paying out of their pocket for classroom supplies. How the program works Starting on Sept. 1, about 80,000 homeroom elementary teachers will have access to their funds through an online portal via their school-board email. The portal, which the province said is already being set up, will be where teachers can choose the supplies they need, which can be delivered directly to their school. Teachers can also check their available balance on the portal. About 3,000 classroom products are going to be available for purchase, including stationery, paper towels, tissues, and calculators, along with arts and crafts, STEM resources, literacy and numeracy supplies, learning aids, teaching resources, and classroom organization and storage. The province said the supplies on the portal are based on a survey of more than 23,000 teachers. Minister Calandra said in March that the program could be expanded in the future to include high school teachers. He noted that if teachers don’t use all their funds in a year, it’ll roll over to the next year. This isn’t the first time the province is partnering with Staples. A number of ServiceOntario outlets were moved to Staples stores in 2024.
