A motion made by the Algoma District School Board (ADSB) to eliminate a trustee position within the board was narrowly defeated at Tuesday night’s board meeting following some debate among trustees.
Part of the motion brought forward was to combine the Elliot Lake and north shore areas, thus reducing the number of trustees from ten to nine, and eliminating the trustee position of north shore - Highway 17 held by Robert McEachren.
“To voluntarily reduce by one when by rights we should be at ten, we should have ten voices around this table,” said trustee Russell Reid. “To voluntarily remove one person, remembering none of us are guaranteed to be here December 1, we could be moving out a good voice that could be at this table.”
“We are limiting ourselves to nine voluntarily,” Reid continued. “I have some concerns with that, given the fiscal gain from moving forward with this is - I think the quote is $15,000 out of a $150 million budget - that is not, in my mind, a responsible action of the board to represent a large geographic area by reducing by one voice that has the potential to be at this table.”
“It’s rather hard not to take this decision personally, because it’s been directed at me, and I think there’s underlying issues, certainly fiscally,” said north shore - Highway 17 trustee Robert McEachren “You are taking away a voice of three communities if we pass this motion.”
Trustee Graham Lidstone – who voted in favour of the motion – said that given the province’s fiscal outlook, the move makes sense, adding that the board would continue to have a voice for the Blind River area.
“Everybody needs to tighten their belts a little bit, and I’m not happy I’m living in a province that is now going to have another massive debt this year, after that first year of finally trying to balance their books,” said Lidstone. “I don’t want to leave that legacy for my kids.”
“I think it sends a message that as people of Ontario, there’s maybe some things that we need to do a little differently.”
The vote resulted in a 5-5 tie, which defeated the motion.
Trustees need to determine the number of trustees to be determined through the election, decide on a number and then distribute the trustees to areas of the board by March 31. Low population areas also need to be designated by the end of the month.