ROCKY VIEW— The last Rocky View Schools Board of Trustees meeting of 2020 on Thursday (Dec. 10) set the stage for the upcoming 2021 Board of Trustees election.
As part of planning for the October 2021 election, the current board approved bylaw changes to ward boundaries within the division, established a bylaw increasing the number of signatures needed in nominations packages, repealed the Campaign Contribution and Expenses bylaw to align with the provincial Elections Act and appointed a chief returning officer Michelle Groff.
These bylaws were required to be passed by Dec. 31.
“We've bumped up against our timeline given that some of the rules have changed within the ... Elections Act,” board chair Fiona Gilbert said.
A change to the Local Authorities Election Act in September has allowed the school division to adjust the number of electoral signatures needed for a nomination package. Under the amendments to the act, a division the size of Rocky View Schools had the option of including between five and 100 signatures in a nomination package.
Bylaw 2020-2 will bump the number of needed signatures to run for a Board of Trustee position from five to 10 signatures from eligible electors.
Ward 3 trustee Melissa Bowen was the sole board member to vote against the bylaw, citing concerns the change would limit the possibility to anyone choosing to run in the election.
“For myself, I didn’t really see any challenges in the last election that would create an issue where I want to increase this to ten,” Bowen said. “I do think it’s important to make sure it’s available to anyone if they were wanting to run in this election.”
Bowen added given the COVID-19 pandemic and the increased need for isolation requiring ten signatures may add to the difficulty of completing a nomination package.
The increase to 10 signatures was a small step, said Ward 5 trustee Jodi Hunter. She added the additional five signatures can show those who complete a nomination form are committed to running in the election and serving on the board.
“This is a minimal step forward from five to 10. We want to ensure that people have given it some consideration when they put their name forward that they have gone out there to at least seek a broader range of people than the five,” Hunter said. “We’ve had situations in the past— There’s a very low threshold for people. They get their five and then later they remove their willingness to participate and yet their name may still be on the ballot.”
Ward 4 trustee Norma Lang noted that a division as large as Rocky View school can raise the bar for running in the election to reflect the size and scope of the work the Board of Trustees engages in.
“This is a signal more than anything that this is a large school division, it’s a very large concern budget-wise and the floor may no longer accomplish, communicate the import of the role,” Lang said.
Additional updates to the Local Authorities Election Act incorporated candidate campaign contributions and expense disclosures making the previous Rocky View School bylaw redundant.
Associate superintendent Larry Paul explained the bylaw was a matter of housekeeping and served to repeal bylaw 2017-3.
In 2017 school divisions were required to put forward a nominees disclosure bylaw because it was not included in the provincial Elections Act. The majority of disclosures have now been rolled into the Act, Paul said, so the Rocky View Schools’ Board bylaw is no longer required.
“It’s really not going to change the discloser a whole lot,” Paul said. “What it does is avoid potentially any conflict between our bylaw and the Elections Act.”
Changes to the ward boundaries through Bylaw No. 2020-01 were necessitated after a review was completed by the board and Alberta Education before the 2017 election.
Since then, there have been three changes to ward boundaries in Rocky View that require amendments— A minor correction from the previous bylaw passed in 2017, an annexation of land which will eventually house the new high school in Cochrane and two changes to the Calgary Board of Education’s service area.
The affected areas include changes to Ward 5 to include section 6 and 7 of Township 27, Range 6 West of the 5th Meridian; Removal of Ward 5 West Crescent and Ward 4 Livingston because they are now part of the Calgary Board of Education’s jurisdiction, and the incorporation of recently annexed lands by the Town of Cochrane from Ward 5 into Ward 6.
The new ward bylaw will be official when given a ministerial order by Minister of Education Adriana LaGrange. It will take effect on the date of the next general election for the board.
