English school boards dismayed by Sept. 26 election call
Those on-again, off-again English school board elections are back on.
Despite the prospect of a fourth wave of COVID-19, the Legault government this week decided to go ahead with the elections after postponing them several times.
In accordance with a cabinet decree adopted Wednesday, the elections will be held Sept. 26, which places the vote before the November municipal elections.
The boards were informed of the decision this week by deputy education minister Alain Sans Cartier.
“The improving health situation opens the path to this course of action,” Sans Cartier wrote in a letter released by the Education Ministry.
Sans Cartier noted that in order to ensure the vote is held safely for all, the health protocols already established for such elections will be updated.
A detailed electoral calendar will follow.
Reaction was swift, with the boards expressing disappointment the vote is not being held at the same time as the municipal elections across Quebec, which are set for Nov. 7.
With the anticipated federal election and the municipal vote, the decision means some voters will likely have to go to the polls three times in the span of a few weeks, Quebec English School Boards Association vice-president Noel Burke said in a statement.
“The QESBA has long advocated that school elections be twinned with municipal elections, as is the case in many other provinces,” Burke said. “Given that there are a limited number of positions to be filled, we thought that this represented a good opportunity to initiate a pilot project and hold school and municipal elections together on Nov. 7.
“This would reduce costs and make voting in school elections more convenient. The government of Quebec has missed an opportunity to innovate in the field of democratic reform.”
There are only 17 positions (three board chairs and 14 commissioner spots) left to be filled via election in eight of Quebec's nine English boards. There are no elections in the Riverside School Board because there are no vacancies.
Despite their disappointment, Burke said boards will do everything in their power to ensure the elections are as well organized as possible. He said they hope the numerous elections this fall do not affect voter turnout, which is already traditionally quite low.
Marlene Jennings — president of the Quebec Community Groups Network, which represents various anglophone organizations — said in a tweet that the government is not making it easy to improve voter turnout by holding the school board vote close to other elections.
“This is tantamount to voter suppression,” she tweeted. “In a true democracy, governments must do everything they can to encourage electors to exercise their democratic right to vote. And with the fourth wave of a pandemic upon us, these are clearly not winning conditions for a good turnout.”