Merge board, city elections, chairs urge
Instead of abolishing school board elections, the government could work to boost voter turnout by possibly forcing municipalities to hold joint elections, said the federation representing French- language boards in the province.
Josée Bouchard, president of the Fédération des commissions scolaires du Québec, said Friday she hopes municipalities will decide, with the government, to pair municipal elections with school board elections, but if push comes to shove, the Couillard government can impose a decision.
“Forcing people is never the best option, but what we’re saying is that the provincial government is there to make decisions,” Bouchard said. “If, at the end of the day, the government thinks school democracy would be rejuvenated as a result of pairing the two elections ... then the government will make its decision.”
Quebec spent $ 20 million on school board elections in November 2014 in which the voter turnout rate was five per cent at French boards and 17 per cent at English ones.
Former education minister Yves Bolduc used those figures as a launching pad to propose sweeping changes to school boards, which in the end became Bill 86.
The piece of legislation, now piloted by Pierre Moreau, abolishes provincewide school board elections and replaces elected councils of commissioners, which currently oversee school board operations, with school councils. The goal, Moreau said, is to give parents and teachers greater control over their schools.
Frank Mooijekind, chairperson of the Vallée-des- Tisserands school board, which borders Ontario, said on Friday that pairing school board and municipal elections would solve “99 per cent of the problem.”
“In Ontario, it’s always been like that ... and the participation rate is 43 per cent. People there enjoy it because they don’t have to vote as often,” Mooijekind said.
“It would have a very positive impact on voter turnout,” said Jennifer Maccarone from the Quebec English School Boards Association. “Our voters are fed up of elections, it’s very challenging to get our voters out, we have no publicity, we have no money.”
Maccarone said municipalities on the island of Montreal and in the Laurentians are in favour of maintaining school democracy, while Mooijekind said 12 municipalities in the Salaberry- de- Valleyfield area have passed resolutions supporting the idea of school board and municipal elections being held simultaneously.
School boards have long pushed for joint elections, but the groups representing municipalities have been cool to the idea.
Union des municipalités spokesperson Patrick Lemieux argued pairing elections would confuse voters. “The issues at the municipal level and at the school board level are completely different,” he said, adding the union, which represents larger cities in Quebec, doesn’t plan on revisiting the issue.
The Fédération québécoise des municipalités said it will re- examine the idea at its board meeting on Thursday.