Fallout from merger of city/school board elections predicted
‘Education will suffer,’ says SWLSB chairman Steve Bletas
Published May 19 , 2010
By Martin C. Barry • TLN

While a spokesman for Quebec Liberal Education Minister Michelle Courchesne insists the government hasn’t decided yet whether it will proceed with a long-anticipated plan to merge municipal and school board elections, Sir Wilfrid Laurier School board chairman Steve Bletas predicts there will be serious consequences for the quality of education if and when the merger happens.
Postponed elections
Last week, Courchesne tabled a draft bill in the National Assembly to amend the province’s current law on school board elections. It would also postpone the next school board election, which was set to take place next year, to 2013 when the next municipal elections will be taking place. While the government hasn’t decided if it will proceed with a merger of municipal and school board elections, a statement issued by Courchesne’s ministry said the date of the next school board elections will be set by a government decree.
“Taking into account the low participation rate in school board elections, we must take the time to reflect on what we want in an educational system in the future,” said Courchesne. “The postponing of elections is part of a series of actions undertaken to improve school board governance. The government wants to encourage reflection on the factors involved in democracy while reinforcing interest among the population in education.”
Many questions
“There’s a lot of questions that still need to be looked at and answered before we can go ahead with holding simultaneous elections,” Tamara Davis, Courchesne’s spokesman in Quebec City at the Ministry of Education, Leisure and Sport, said in an interview with the Laval News. “No decision has yet been taken,” she added. All the same, the fact that Courchesne’s department has now postponed the school board elections is being taken by some as a sign the government has already decided on its future course of action.
However, according to Courchesne’s aide, the purpose of the delay is actually to “give us enough time to keep discussions going.” The education ministry plans to hold a public forum this fall on the future of education in Quebec, which would include discussion of possibly merging the elections. “We’re not rushed or limited by a time frame,” Davis insisted. She said the objective of the operation is to increase democracy in the public education system.
A costly merger: Bletas
Bletas, who has already gone on record to denounce the idea of merged elections as something that would be very costly especially for English school boards, is fatalistic faced with what may be inevitable. “It may work for the French sector, but for the English sector we’re so spread out,” he said, noting that the SWLSB’s territory stretches from Laval all the way to the northern Laurentian region. “The expense will be tremendous and I haven’t heard the government saying who’s going to bear it.”
Although Bletas sees no point in resisting the government’s decision should it decide to merge the elections, he predicts there will be inevitable consequences afterwards, including amalgamations of school boards and less money for education when municipalities have to decide what are their priorities when budgeting expenses. “Let’s say we need new programs or books for kids and all of a sudden a municipality has to fix roads or overpasses,” said Bletas. “Where do you think the money is going to go first? It’ll go there, so education will suffer.”