Since the last election in 2022 for board trustees at the Winnipeg School Division, questions have been floating on the financial barriers that come with running. Another is greater transparency and fairness in campaign funding.
Kathy Heppner, trustee for Ward 3 and chair, says the board has decided to address these concerns and, during their March 17 meeting, voted to endorse recommendations that support the call for financial caps and transparency. The vote was unanimous.
“It is just to be accountable to the constituents. So after we were elected in 2022, Maggie Macintosh [Reporter, Winnipeg Free Press] was contacting a lot of us and asking, where, where did you get your funding? Like who supported you? And, those are really good questions. And I feel like that would be something that should be sort of automatic. We should have to show our financial statements because we are an elected official. There’s rules like that for our city councillors. There’s caps. There’s caps for MLAs, MPs.”
The school board level of government is the only level that doesn’t have election financing legislation, explains Tom Simms, a representative of Just Elections. “In the absence of that, there’s a lot of things that can be done that are legal, but that they’re not fair.”
The recommendations by Just Elections are part of a 12-point plan to ensure school board elections are free from financial influence.
“There shouldn’t be unfair advantages based on how much money you have, whether it’s your own personal money, whether it’s coming from some kind of organization’s contribution, whether it’s coming from out of province.”
The endorsement from the WSD is also a request that the provincial government amend the Municipal Councils and School Board Elections Act. Simms says the introduction of Bill 39 by the Manitoba Government marks a step in the right direction.
“We really appreciate the work and acknowledge there’s great work and leadership that’s been taken by the government on this. This has not been dealt with for the past 30 years, so it’s a series of governments that haven’t dealt with this.”
Some of the positives Simms sees from the bill are provisions prohibiting corporate and union donations, limiting contributions from outside the province, and requiring financial disclosure from candidates. However, there are issues with the bill. According to Heppner, one of the major points of contention in Bill 39 is the spending cap for school trustees.
If you’ve read Bill 39, one of the things that I think we still have some questions on and I think need some, like taking a look at, is that the cap for school trustees is $7,500. But that’s like ten times the amount, I think, for either city councillors or MLAs. And so we think that number needs to be adjusted [and] lowered considerably.”
The current version of Bill 39 is not set in stone, with community consultations being held to develop amendments.
“I think it’s important to have community consultations and to have that open to the public so that it allows anyone to come and speak,” Heppner says. “When we’re in schools and talking to people, we need to let them know these changes are happening.”
All these decisions are to ensure fair elections, says Simms, and to ensure money isn’t the influence for who’s sitting around the decision-making table.
With school board elections just over a year away, it is still uncertain if new legislation will be in place for the next election cycle.
The 12 recommendations to amend the Municipal Councils and School Board Elections Act include:
- An election oversight body will be given the legislative authority for the development and administration of election financing regulations for school board elections.
- School trustee candidates will be required to open separate bank accounts for election campaign contributions and expenses.
- Corporate, organization, and union contributions to school trustee election campaigns will be prohibited.
- Out-of-province non-resident contributions to school trustee election campaigns will also be prohibited.
- Goods and services contributions to school trustee election campaigns will be reported as election campaign expenses based on the fair market value of the goods and services at the time of the contribution.
- Limits on individual election campaign contributions to school trustee election campaigns will be established.
- School trustee election campaign spending limits will be set.
- Public disclosure of individual donors for school trustee election campaigns will be required.
- Regulations governing financial contributions and reporting for school trustee election campaign fundraising events will be implemented.
- A campaign financial disclosure statement must be completed at the end of the election campaign for all school trustee candidates.
- A rebate for school board election campaign contributions will be introduced.
- Penalties will be enforced for school trustees regarding non-compliance with school board election campaign financing and reporting regulations.
– Ryan Funk, U Multicultural
