Former EQAO Chair says Creating FullTime Job Not Necessary

The new full-time Education Quality and Accountability Office Chair position is drawing criticism from a former Windsor politician.

The Doug Ford government recently appointed Cameron Montgomery to lead the EQAO office.

The job was previously a part-time appointment, but that's been bumped up to include a $140,000 salary, something Windsor's Dave Cooke says "disturbs him greatly."

The former NDP Education Minister and member of the EQAO says he fears the position may be interfered with politically.

"It's something that began when I was Minister of Education, we appointed the first board, a real non-partisan board that we put together," he says. "I just believe that this organization is essential to be able to measure the strengths and weaknesses of the system."

Cooke says there simply isn't enough work to justify a full-time salary.

"You keep track of the finances, you make sure that what has been agreed to with the strategic plan, you measure the success of the CEO year-to-year, and it's that kind of stuff. It's not where you're doing the day-to-day business of running the operation," added Cooke.

He says changing the position's responsibilities would defeat the purpose of the chair.

"What potentially could happen is that the chair would get into micro-managing the place, which is not a chair's responsibility. A chair is supposed to be the head of governance."

Cooke sat on the EQAO board for nearly a decade, sitting as chair for the last three years — he retired from it in October.

He says he made between $3,000 and $4,000 a year at the position.

— with files from AM800's Patty Handysides