Meet CSAP candidate Jean-Philippe Bourgeois

It’s municipal election season, meaning it’s also time to elect new French school board (or Conseil) trustees. As of this week, advance voting has begun, with early online and phone voting available now until Oct. 16. Find HRM voting information here.

CSAP candidates across 10 districts run in municipal elections to represent their districts while also sitting on a provincial Conseil representing the interests of all CSAP voters, families, and students in Nova Scotia. In this election, only two CSAP districts are contested. Halifax is one of those two districts.

Not sure how to vote for a CSAP candidate? In the HRM, here’s how:

Look up your district here and your voting location here
Check to make sure that you’re on the elector list in the HRM here or calling the Voter Help Line at 902-490-VOTE (8683) or 1-844-301-VOTE (8683) to be added to the list
Make sure you fit the requirements to be an eligible CSAP voter listed here
Request a CSAP ballot when you vote (either online, by phone or in person)

Four candidates are running for two seats in the HRM. Three of the four candidates are running for re-election, having served on the CSAP board for the previous four-year term: Jeff Arsenault, Katherine Howlett, and Marc Pinet.

The fourth is Jean-Phillipe Bourgeois, a CSAP parent on the peninsula who’s been advocating for an urban school at CSAP meetings and publicly for years.

Bourgeois has lived on the Halifax peninsula since 2009 and has two children at école Mer et Monde. He has campaigned for a CSAP high school on the peninsula, made the case for more infrastructure at Conseil meetings and presented concerns over HRM representation on the board at the May UARB meeting. He is a lecturer in economics at Saint Mary’s University and Dalhousie University. Information about each candidate can be found in French here.

The Coast requested all four HRM candidates answer the same 11-item questionnaire on concerns facing CSAP families.

Below are Bourgeois’ remaining responses to the questionnaire.

The Coast: This summer, the province proclaimed the Conseil scolaire acadien provincial Act. In your own words, describe the significance of this legislation and what it will change.

Bourgeois: It is a great first step towards self-managing our schools. As a community, we can instruct our children as we see fit. This is a huge win.

The Coast: In May, the UARB approved the Conseil’s request to reduce the number of elected members from 18 to 13. This means the HRM will now have two members, down from three, to represent its constituents. What will this change?

Bourgeois: I agree with reducing the elected members from 18 to 13. However, I do not agree with reducing the share of power to HRM. Regions without proportional decision-making power to their population will obtain fewer services, as we see right now in HRM.

The Coast: Based on what was presented to the UARB, the two newly elected CSAP members in the HRM will now represent over 10,000 eligible voters, or just under 43% of voters province-wide, and 3,317 students, or over 52% of students province-wide. How big of a problem will representation be at the Conseil and how do you plan to address it?

Bourgeois: Without proper representation and decisional power, we won’t get what we need. There are approximately 6,000 eligible or “ayant droit” children in HRM under age 18, according to the last census survey in 2021. Only 3,317 students are in CSAP schools. Therefore, our region is missing at least 2,000 school seats. That is about 20 schools. No representation, no service. Without people at the table, we will continue to lose generation after generation of our kids to assimilation in HRM.

The Coast: How aware are you of the problems with the Transco bus service for HRM students? Explain what is being done to fix these problems.

Bourgeois: I am very aware of this problem; it is my kid’s bus that got lost. CSAP seems to believe that the problem is one of communication and is addressing it that way. I do not believe that is the actual problem. Communication is essential to parents, and raising CSAP policies to the level of other school Conseils’ in terms of communication is a minimum. However, that does not deal with the problem of the loss of the bus. As a parent, I will now know faster that the school bus is lost. I would have loved to see a policy that deals with how Transco or CSAP will not lose another bus and not simply tell us faster when they’ve lost a bus.

The Coast: When will the new CSAP school on the peninsula open? Explain how this school fits the Conseil’s Strategic Plan for 2024-2030 and how families were consulted about the selection and design process.

Bourgeois: The school, which I am sure will be lovely inside, is ultimately a token gift from the province while not giving us what we deserve: 2,000 missing school seats. The school being built is a replacement; it barely adds more capacity. We needed community schools across HRM. The parents on the peninsula wanted a community school and fought for it—where our kids could walk and bike to school. Plenty of other districts need them, too, and should not be brushed aside until they mobilize and fight for years against their own school board. Fighting against the CSAP is not that fun.

The location of this school is where almost no one lives—on Bayers Road, next to the military base. Nearly all kids will ultimately need to be bussed there. Parents were not consulted or given a presentation of the school’s future. I presented, along with other parents, a paper to the decisional body about the danger of drop-off bus loops, which was discarded. I made FOIA requests on the traffic study of the area, which was returned censoring all data on road safety of the new school’s site. It was very clear that the choice was made that the province did not want input, and the CSAP did not want to fight for our community. And now we will be stuck with this. The CSAP could have fought, but they simply did not. Only one councillor fought against this and was suspended.

The Coast: The Department of Public Works selected the chosen site at Oxford Street and Bayers Road and presented it to the Department of Education, who approved it. However, they only presented one site to the department. Do you agree this was/is the best site for a peninsula school, or were there other sites discussed?

Bourgeois: I have no idea whether other sites were discussed. As a parent, I was only presented with one option and one design, and there was no voting. This project was a “fait-accompli.”

The Coast: How concerned are families with the power the CSAP has to make infrastructure decisions?

Bourgeois: VERY! Without proportional decisional power, HRM families can’t be heard and can’t make any choices about ANYTHING! Again, 2,000 missing school seats. That means a school in EVERY community in HRM: Spryfield, Eastern Passage, South end, North end, West end, Fairmount, Cole Harbour… the list goes on.

Families are voting with their feet (and choosing anglophone schools) because we don’t have any infrastructure, which is multiplied by a current school board that does not believe infrastructure is their responsibility. The CSAP has a dual mandate: to run the CSAP schools and to protect our communities. That certainly involves school infrastructure. With the CSAP Act, the province believes us capable of educating our kids as we see fit, but not fit enough to know where our schools should go.