School trustees in northern Ontario say the provincial government intends to eliminate their elected public school board positions when the legislature returns this spring.

Lakehead District School Board trustees are rallying with local union leaders and parent advocacy organizations in Thunder Bay, claiming the majority-Progressive Conservative government will introduce an omnibus bill as early as this month that would put an end to more than 200 years of locally accountable education governance.

“Our concern is that they’ll come back and just dissolve or eliminate the trustees from all boards – it’s our biggest concern,” says Lakehead board chair Leah Vanderwey. “When you listen to Minister of Education [Paul] Calandra, he says he hasn’t heard any argument against eliminating trustees.”

In the four months since Ontario passed Bill 33, which enabled the education minister to overrule the Education Act and take direct control over local boards, allegedly due to mismanagement and fiscal unsustainability, Calandra has imposed supervisors to rule over eight of the province’s English boards. 

Lakehead’s rally comes only days after Calandra’s office appointed supervisors to usurp the authority of two more elected school boards.

The minister has called the elected system “outdated” but Vanderwey says her colleagues are providing a critical link to adapting province-wide plans to fit local conditions. This year alone, they’re forcing administration to consider northern climate nuances under the new transportation strategy and advocating for resources to accommodate Lakehead’s disproportionate number of special needs pupils. She’s calling for consultations on the future of local education governance.

“If the public gets a voice in this, we can pause this legislation and find out what the whole province of Ontario feels about it – students, teachers, parents, families, the community at large – how they feel about it,” Vanderwey says. “If they feel at this point there’s no need for trustees, so be it. But the part that’s concerning is, it seemed to come in quickly without any consultation.”

According to Ontario Autism Coalition president Alina Cameron, who is based in Thunder Bay, a province-wide survey of parents and guardians of special education students found 28 per cent  – more than 100,000 – reached out to their local school trustees in only the past year.

“We know they’re going to press through legislation this year that will basically be a nail in the coffin for trustees, and that it will likely shift the trajectory of special education in Ontario. We have some hints about that,” Cameron says, citing a delayed Auditor General’s report on special education. “We know what that report is going to show. We think the government is in mitigation strategy mode right now and they want to launch this bill before that report is made public.”

Calandra’s office did not respond to media inquiries.

The Ford government has now put eight Ontario school boards under the direct control of the Ministry of Education, part of a string of school board takeovers that began last year.

Since 1816, democratically elected public school board trustees have played a key role in ensuring schools and administrators remain accountable for the education of local children. Ontarians elect their school board trustees alongside municipal councils. Boards manage only one employee, the local director of education, which ensures schools are responsive to concerns of parents, through their local trustee representatives. 

Accountability

In Thunder Bay’s recent case, the views of the recently retired director of education were found to be extreme. In 2023, the Ontario College of Teachers found Lakehead board’s top executive guilty of dozens of professional infractions. Ian MacRae did not defend himself against the evidence of 20 witnesses, whose allegations included racism and verbally abusing both staff and board members.

MacRae allegedly brought an anti-Indigenous racism swear jar into meetings, where anyone who said “something negative about Natives” had to pay $5. He would put $20 in the jar before the meeting began.

A witness also claimed MacRae said a new school would “have an Indian name over my dead body.”

Ellen Chambers was the elected board chair at that time. In a written statement, she says she’s legally bound not to speak publicly about the case’s details but she believes the system of elected trustees ultimately held MacRae accountable.

“I would say that the Ontario College of Teachers findings on this person indicate that the process did eventually work,” Chambers wrote.

First Nations concerns

If Ontario dissolves elected public boards, advocates say it will pose unique pressure on the communication networks that have been built to hold the education system accountable to First Nations.

“If the system is broken, let’s all fix it together,” offers Elaine Johnston, the chair and First Nation trustee of the Algoma District School Board, in the Sault Ste. Marie area. 

She’s hearing that the provincial government may soon table legislation that will do away with public representation on school boards, adding that Ontario has engaged in no consultation with First Nations.

First Nation trustees aren’t elected in Ontario, but since 1997 they’ve held an equal and unique place on school boards. First Nations receive federal education funds, which they transfer to school boards under Education Service Agreements. In the Algoma board’s case, the eight communities who have ESAs collectively appoint the First Nation trustee who represents the interests of their children while they’re attending provincial schools.

“What’s happened is that the supervisor now controls the board,” she says of the eight boards the minister has seized. “There is no accountability, at least for the First Nations, for the funds that we transfer to school boards because the First Nation trustee is also not sitting at the table.”

The former Serpent River First Nation chief and 12-year school board veteran is also chair of the Ontario Public School Board Association’s First Nations, Inuit, and Metis Trustee Council. She attended Indian Day School and the state took her parents to Indian Residential School. She says democratic safeguards are necessary to ensure Ontario is instilling a “sense of belonging” for First Nations students in both school and curriculum. 

Ontario erected a Family Resource Centre in her board three years ago that is designed to field parent concerns, but Johnston says it hasn’t made a dent in her workload as the First Nation trustee. She insists that bridging the historical, cultural, and bureaucratic divides require the intricate attention that can only succeed when there are formal ties to First Nations communities.

“The Canadian public and the Ontario public do not understand First Nations communities, do not understand our governance structures, do not understand how money flows,” Johnston says.

“These decisions are being made without our consultation and consent. For First Nations, sadly, this is the way the government works with us: they make these decisions and they come up to us afterwards and say, ‘This is what we’ve done for you.’ That’s what they did with residential schools, that’s what they did with the Indian Act. That’s what we’ve experienced for years, not just with this government, but this government seems to make decisions on our behalf – and it’s for all Ontarians – and saying that they’re doing what’s right for people.”

Jon Thompson is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter based in Thunder Bay. Contact him with tips and story ideas at Jon@ricochet.media.