Nunavik school board defends meeting, training costs

A Feburary 2015 article published in the Journal de Montreal highlighted a trip by four KSB commissioners to an education conference in Hawaii, which cost the school board $23,000. But the school board says the report fails to recognize the cost of travel from the North.

Nunavik’s Kativik School Board has defended its spending on staff travel and training following a report alleging extravagant expenses published this week in a Quebec newspaper.

The French-language Journal de Montreal reported Sept. 30 on a number of school board meetings and training sessions, the airfare and lodging expenses of which the newspaper said topped $170,000 over the last 12 months.

The Journal points to two events in particular: a five-day training session in August 2014 with managers and elected commissioners at the “chic” Hotel L’Estérel north of Montreal, which cost the board $60,526, as well as the same meeting this past August, held instead at Montreal’s Marriott Courtyard at a cost of $68,651.

This spending, Journal reporter Sébastien Ménard wrote, took place while 34,000 Quebec teachers are on strike to protest the provincial government’s cuts to education funding.

The KSB denied any misuse of funds, saying the article misses the reality — and cost — of operating in a region like Nunavik.

The two major meetings highlighted by the Journal were strategic planning exercises, the school board said in an Oct. 1 emailed statement, and these were paid for at a rate consistent with public services per diem standards and lodging.

“We deplore that the Kativik School Board be used to feed an ongoing political debate about the future of Quebec’s public schools and their funding, blatantly disregarding the specifics of both the Aboriginal people we provide services to as well as the social and geographical context within which we operate our schools,” the school board said.

In Nunavik, where meeting facilities and restaurants are rare and where hotel rooms cost on average $210 per night, the school board said it is more economical to fly administrators or commissioners based in the region’s 14 communities south to Montreal for meetings.

The board is also unique in Quebec in that it provides services to an Inuit population, including Inuktitut-language programming, the KSB said, which means administrators require different pedagogical training than in other school boards.

“In our view, this [article] contributes to feeding misconceptions about Canada’s aboriginal people, their identity and, in our case, the Inuit people of Nunavik as well as the importance of preserving their language, Inuktitut,” the KSB said.

This isn’t the first time the Quebec newspaper has looked at the KSB’s spending; last February, the Journal published an article highlighting the board’s decision to send four commissioners to an education conference in Hawaii, at a cost of $23,000.

The newspaper also points to the KSB’s low graduation rates, which the Journal quotes as 21 per cent — although the board says it’s now 29 per cent, suggesting student success may be impeded by the board’s travel and lodging expenses.

Like all Indigenous populations in Canada, the KSB invests heavily in school perseverance initiatives, the school board responded.

“Addressing issues as complex as chronic drop-out requires time, expertise and meetings,” the KSB said. “All this cannot be achieved without the allocation of appropriate financial resources.”