Quebec keeps school report secret

It had cost taxpayers $142,200 as of last month for the services of a lawyer hired to help solve the political infighting at the English Montreal School Board.

What, if anything, he has recommended to the Quebec government remains a mystery.

In response to The Gazette’s access to information request asking for a copy of all correspondence and reports submitted by Montreal lawyer Tommaso Nanci, the Education Department confirmed it has “a document” in its possession. But it declined to provide a copy, saying it was a document of the minister’s office or was produced on its behalf.

Tamara Davis, a spokesperson for Education Minister Michelle Courchesne, said the document wasn’t Nanci’s report. She wouldn’t say if the department has his report.

“We’re going to act in total transparency when we have all the elements,” Davis said.

Parents at the EMSB want to know the result of Nanci’s work, which started in February 2009 when the government took the rare step of appointing him as an observer to the board.

“We just want to know: What was all this money spent on and what’s coming from it?” said Colleen Landrigan, vice-chairperson of the board’s Central Parents Committee.

“I think we are entitled to know. Taxpayers have … paid for this.”

The committee recently wrote to Courchesne, asking if there was a report and, if so, could she share the information with them.

“We don’t even know if his mandate was to come back with recommendations,” Landrigan said.

“We really are just asking to find out, ‘Now what?’ Really, that’s our question: Now what?”

The school board has one of the province’s highest graduation rates. But its elected commissioners have often been at loggerheads during testy public meetings since the board was created in 1998.

Six months before Nanci’s appointment – and in another rare move – Education Department officials met privately with the EMSB’s Council of Commissioners over a contentious busing resolution that board officials contended was illegal.

The Council has 23 elected commissioners and two parent commissioners. Its role is to set policies and oversee operations at the publicly funded board, which has a $221-million budget for 2009-10.

Nanci was initially hired on a two-month contract but his term was extended until December. His second contract from mid-May to July described his role as a mediator.

Part of his mandate was to support the council in achieving “a permanent solution to the problems encountered” and to maintain sound governance and rigorous management. It also asked him to produce a report with recommendations for the minister.

The government said its decision not to release the document to The Gazette was based on Article 34 of the Act respecting access to documents held by public bodies and the protection of personal information. That section says, in part, no one can have access to a document from the office of a member of the National Assembly unless a member deems it expedient. The same applies to a document from the office of a minister, the law says.

Contract details provided by the government show three payments to Nanci in 2009 and one on Jan. 18, for a total of $142,200.

bbranswell@thegazette.canwest.com