School support designation is a way for property owners and tenants in Ontario to identify which school board they want to support. This designation determines which trustee election you are eligible to participate in.
Whether you own or rent your home, your property is linked to a school board – even if you don’t have children or your children aren’t currently attending school. While you’re not required to make a designation, you do have the option to choose which school board you support. If you don’t make a choice, your support will default to the English-Public school board.
While Elections Ontario maintains the Permanent Register of Electors in Ontario for provincial, municipal, and school board elections, MPAC (Municipal Property Assessment Corporation) is legislatively responsible for collecting school support designation information.
Where can I find my school support information?
As a property owner, your school support designation is listed on your Property Assessment Notice and in MPAC AboutMyProperty™.
As a tenant, you can check your current designation with MPAC’s online portal for tenants.
How to update school support designations
Property owners can change their school support designation online using MPAC AboutMyProperty™ or the online portal for tenants. To get started, choose the option that applies to you:
You can submit a paper Application for Direction of School Support form in English or French and mail or email it to MPAC.
School support updates after the June 1 deadline
June 1 was the deadline to update your school support designation so MPAC could provide accurate information to Elections Ontario for the creation of the Preliminary List of Electors, in accordance with election timelines. You can still update your designation after June 1 by:
- Contacting MPAC’s Customer Contact Centre, and receive a confirmation letter or
- Online via MPAC’s AboutMyProperty™ or tenant portal, and receive an auto generated confirmation email
Your change will be recorded by MPAC, but it will not appear on the Preliminary List of Electors. After submitting your update, you’ll receive an email confirmation. Share this with your municipality so your information can be updated on the final Voters List.
What school support designations are available?
English-Public
English-Separate (Catholic)
French-Public
French-Separate (Catholic)
By default, your designation is set to English-Public, unless you choose to change it.
To learn more or update a school support designation, visit mpac.ca/schoolsupport.