More from Quel Avenir on the city structure
François Cardinal restates his point from yesterday that the CAQ promise to cut down the number of elected representatives in Montreal will not magically fix everything wrong with the city. He goes on to illustrate why uniform governance for every borough is not a panacea either.
(CAQ’s also thinking along the same lines about school boards – get rid of most of them, centralize the rest and call them “service centres” or some such. I have no strong opinions on this, not having children, but a little warning light goes off when any party pushes hard on slicing away aspects of democratic involvement while hard-selling the bargain you get by centralizing all the decision-making in a few hands.)
Ephraim 13:27 on 2012/08/16 Permalink
Nothing will magically fix everything is wrong. But that’s an awful lot of salaries being paid.
As far as the school boards are concerned, maybe they should be better run and a LOT more transparent. And certainly Voc. Ed. shouldn’t be in the same hands. Maybe Voc. Ed. for both Secondary levels as CEGEP levels should in fact be under one board. It’s a way to help those who fail out of high school, why are we trusting it to the same people?
Ephraim 13:29 on 2012/08/16 Permalink
I meant… nothing will magically fix everything THAT is wrong. You don’t fix everything at once, you fix the system and then deal with the problems down the line and streamline. But the reality is that if you keep on waiting until you get it perfect, you never get it published, it’s always in the beta stage.
Kate 13:57 on 2012/08/16 Permalink
As I say, I haven’t got strong feelings about the school boards. But I think you may be right on Voc.Ed. – there should be some way of framing it so you acknowledge that while not everyone is suited to an academically based qualification, the trades are often more remunerative anyway. Maybe this should be handled by Emploi Québec rather than school boards, I don’t know.
But I think Cardinal is right on the city structure. The city’s governance is a house of cards. You can’t just yank out a layer and expect the rest to fall neatly into place.
Jack 15:37 on 2012/08/16 Permalink
@ Kate I used to agree with you until I saw the school commissioners in action. At the EMSB it is simply Tammany Hall with so much infighting that a “conciliation”consultant had to be hired along with a rumoured threat of a”tutelle” from the Education Ministry. The CSM commissioners are simply a PQ-BQ farm team, as Diane De Courcy’s candidacy in Cremazie bears out.
During the student protests, my daughter’s school in the CSM allowed the students to vote on a three day strike, my 13 year old is pretty sharp but ultimately she just wanted the three days off. I asked the principal if his new found belief in student democracy would extend to uniforms, hiring and staff evaluations.
I was supportive of the protest at the CEGEP and University level but I knew my kid was being used to advance a political mission at the behest of the commissioners, and that is not cool. So Kate I say burn them down give the money per cap (working-middle-rich) to the Conseil d’etablissement and let the communities take care of their own schools. The school boards have outlived their usefulness.
david m 16:38 on 2012/08/16 Permalink
the thing that scares me is that neighborhoods would be subordinated to the center, and the center elected by the periphery. i like having a borough mayor and council that runs our hood the way we want, and i really really hope that this isn’t changed, no matter the cost. basically, it’s worth the extra money for better things. this being just one example: http://www.mtlurb.com/forums/showthread.php/20555-r%C3%A9am%C3%A9nagement-de-la-rue-rachel
walkerp 23:25 on 2012/08/16 Permalink
Yes, look what happened to Toronto when the periphery has the voting power: Rob Ford. ’nuff said.
Ian 08:47 on 2012/08/17 Permalink
It’s a sad fact that Toronto is essentially governed by people that don’t like Toronto, and it’s been that way ever since Toronto and its 905 region burbs got amalgamated. Like the Federal conservative majority, you can put that blames squarely on the 905ers.
AH 11:02 on 2012/08/18 Permalink
School boards do have a purpose, but at this point they’re competing for money and students (in that order). Having 5 different boards in Montreal (2 english and 3 french) not only duplicates jobs and services, but it means that, as an outside organization who works with schools, I have 5 times more administrative and logistical work to do.