Mackenzie Wants Local Representation
Prince George, B.C. – Mackenzie Mayor Pat Crook says it’s time for a ward system when it comes to electing school trustees in the Prince George School District.
Mackenzie Mayor Pat Crook
The district, which includes Prince George, the District of Mackenzie and the Villages of McBride and Valemount, currently employs an at-large system.
Crook says the timing seems right considering a majority of candidates enthusiastically voiced their support to restructure representation during an all candidates forum in Mackenzie during last year’s election campaign.
“They all seemed to express support for it but I guess that support didn’t carry on past the election.”
He says he wrote a letter to the School Board requesting the restructuring in order to give them time to actually work through the process in time for the next election in 2018.
“About 60% of the school boards in the province have local representation elected in different areas. So it’s not an unusual move.”
Why the need for a ward system?
“We’d have a voice that could express concerns for the community, not a voice that expresses concern for Prince George or the region.”
Crook says a return letter from school board chairperson Tony Cable advised him they are committed “to ensuring that all seven trustees represent the interests of the District of Mackenzie and its citizens.”
To him, that meant they weren’t really interested in change at all. “I’m a bit a disappointed in the school board’s reaction to this,” he says. “To me it was basically a polite way of saying no.”
However Cable says that’s not the case.
“We have three years to discuss this issue and we’ll have lots of chances to meet with Mackenzie and talk about it further,” he says. “So we’re not shutting the door, we’ve got lots of time.”
Comments
There is no better time than now to discuss an issue which should have been dealt with a long time ago. The decision is obvious, the outlying areas have schools, Valemount, McBride and Mackenzie. None of them have local representation.
If it is discussed and decided on, then the mindset of the Board, all being from PG at the moment, will be made clear. 3 years is not going to change that. It will, however, hopefully influence the way the Board moves forward from now on.
From Cable: “…. all seven trustees represent the interests of the District of Mackenzie and its citizens..”
I would like to see a case by case situation which shows that they do by running it past Mackenzie City Council. In other word, prove it.
The Board chair needs to show some better leadership in this.
Does the School Board run everything past PG City Council? Regional District? There are several schools outside of the City of PG not just Mackenzie. How many people from Mackenzie ran for school trustee? If there has to be representation on the board from every area then hopefully more than one person from each area runs so there is an opportunity to choose. Where were the candidates from in past elections?
I think when one has distances like Valemount and Mackenzie, then yes they most definitely should have local representation.
I am sure more would run from those communities if they did have a local seat available, and the board as a whole in PG would have to give more attention to the issues of those outlaying communities.
I think the unstated hold up is SD#57 doesn’t have the budget for the administrators to travel for meetings and sees this as a waste from the PG centric position. Maybe this is an issue for the local MLA’s to step forward and ensure this would not be a financial issue holding SD#57 back from enabling representation.
Who said anything about passing things by City Council? I doubt the new Mayor of Mackenzie intended anything like that. He stated that the majority of candidates enthusiastically voiced their support to restructure representation during an all candidate’s forum in Mackenzie during the election campaign. He also stated that about 60% of the school boards in the province have local representation elected in different areas. If that is accurate, then Mackenize and other smaller communities to the west have “taxation without representation”.
This is about ensuring reasonable representation from different regions on a Board that sets direction for the entire region, not just Prince George. I do not know how candidates from Mackenzie would ever be able to get elected when people from PG would really not be familiar with them. A candidate from Valemount would have a 3 hour drive to get to a forum in PG.
Here is some info on 3 different school boards:
SD 57 Prince George: 7 trustees, all elected at large. – 31 elementary, 8 secondary, 1 centre for learning alternatives – district population 92,264; student population 14,239
SD23 Kelowna: 7 trustees, one for each of zone 1, zone 2, West Kelowna, plus 4 from Kelowna – district population 162,184; student population 21,353
SD 73 – Kamloops: 9 Trustees, five elected at large from within the City of Kamloops and one each from TNRD Areas A and B and the District of Clearwater; TNRD Area O and the District of Barriere; TNRD Areas L and P, the Village of Chase and the Resort Municipality of Sun Peaks; and, TNRD Area J and the District of Logan Lake – district population 103,645; student population 14,675 – 33 elementary, 1 middle school, 10 secondary, 2 alternate education
If we follow the Kelowna model we could have 1 representative from the north and one from the east and then stay with 5 for greater PG.
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