Bright future in store for WI anglophone community

BY ELYSE AMEND

elyse.amend@transcontinental.ca

The beginning of a new year is customarily a time many people make plans and wishes for the future, and also reflect on the past. Recently, Montreal Express spoke with the chairman of the Lester B. Pearson School Board (LBPSB) and president to the Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA), Marcus Tabachnick, about his opinions on the current state and future of the anglophone community in the West Island.

“The West Island community has changed. There’s no doubt,” said Tabachnick, who has lived in Dollard des Ormeaux for the past 30 years. “It’s much more multicultural than it’s ever been. There’s no doubt English is well rooted in the West Island as well, and it’s a much more bilingual population than ever before.”

Census 2006 data released by Statistics Canada in December showed the allophone population has gone up since 2001 in the West Island, where people who speak neither English nor French as their mother tongue make up over 20 per cent of the population in cities like Dorval, Pointe Claire and Kirkland, and as much as 35 per cent in Dollard. While the francophone population saw a drop in numbers in the majority of the West Island, the anglophone population went up or remained steady in most municipalities.

One phenomenon Tabachnick commented on is the high number of young anglophone Quebecers who leave the province for jobs elsewhere in Canada or in the United States.

“It’s more about job opportunities than it is about the state of English in our province. What we need is job creation. Attractive jobs that will keep young Anglophones in Quebec,” Tabachnick said. Both of his sons also left Quebec for their careers – one is currently in the US, while the other is working in Toronto. “One of the attributes they brought to their jobs is they were bilingual. It’s a very portable ability they take with them. It’s a great thing to say you can speak two languages.”

Tabachnick added students in vocational programs at the LBPSB --such as auto mechanics, esthetics and hairdressing, and their culinary program – experience nearly a 100 per cent placement rate after graduation.

“Vocational programs should meet the needs of industries that are up to date and cutting edge,” he said, adding the school board’s vocational programs train skilled professional for sectors where demand is high. “They do find jobs. It’s virtually 100 per cent placement.”

Tabachnick also said the state of education in the English public school system at the elementary and high school levels is also doing very well, with graduation rates in the LBPSB remaining among the highest in Quebec.

Interest in the 2007 School Board Elections, which took place in November of last year, was not as high as he hoped. The LBPSB had a 12.5 per cent voter turnout, or about 3,000 out of 23,197 registered electors. According to Tabachnick, however, these numbers do not have anything to do with the state of English education itself.

“We’re a product of the same malaise that is affecting the electorate at every level,” he said, adding voter turnout in municipal, provincial, and federal elections is also relatively low across the country. School boards also plan to get more information to the public about what commissioners actually do and the importance of the job.

“It’s in the best interest of our community to have contested elections. (School board commissioner) is a very important job, but it’s hard to attract people to it,” he said, adding commissioners put in much hard work and many long hours for little remuneration. The LBPSB, for example, pays its commissioners about $7,000 a year. Tabachnick also said more work will be done to make the commissioners more visible in the community. “Right now, commissioners aren’t as visible as, let’s say, a mayor or a city councillor, even though they’re elected by the same people (…) We have to make sure our commissioners are seen more and are more active in our communities.”

As for one of the biggest stories to come out of 2007 – the Bouchard-Taylor Commission – Tabachnick says he does not see those issues in the West Island.

“You ask yourself, what is all this about reasonable accommodation in the West Island? There’s great respect for culture, religion, race, language. We don’t fight those battles here,” he said. “I think we have the ideal mix on the West Island. It’s a terrific place to bring up a family. I think we’re in a good place.”