North Bay city councillor Mac Bain wants to see school boards help pay for the cost of running elections.
He put forward a motion to support a call from the Town of Petrolia for school boards to conduct their own elections or compensate municipalities.
Bain says it cost about $250,000 for the city to run the last vote, which included the election of school board trustees.
“A little north of 50 percent of the work that’s related to the election is to run a school board election,” he says. “They have four boards, multiple people running and none of the boards contribute to the cost of running an election.”
Bain says that’s the case across the province.
He also says another challenge for the next election includes the province using its own voter’s list, instead of data from the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation.
“The challenge is the Province of Ontario doesn’t collect education data,” he says. “That’s only going to lead to more confusion and more expense for municipalities on election day.”
Along with some municipal groups, the city’s motion is being forwarded to the ministers of Education and Municipal Affairs and Housing.
