The province has appointed an education union executive and former Winnipeg school principal to lead a new provincial discipline process for teachers.
Bobbi Taillefer has been selected as Manitoba’s independent education commissioner, the provincial government confirmed Thursday.
The role, created as part of a 2023 bill amending the province’s Education Administration Act, empowers Taillefer to investigate complaints from the public and reports from school boards or employers about teacher misconduct and incompetence, take disciplinary action and post discipline records on a public registry of teachers.
“It’s about protecting kids,” Taillefer told CBC News in an interview.
“[It’s] making sure teachers have fair systems, and that the public has confidence in the education system they are sending their children to.”
Under the province’s new legislation, passed unanimously last spring, the commissioner can decide what actions are appropriate to address a complaint, as well as investigate reports of misconduct or “close the matter by not taking further action.”
Taillefer can also either consent to a resolution agreement with the teacher after a complaint of misconduct or appoint a hearing panel to decide on the appropriate consequences, which can go as far as cancelling an educator’s teaching certificate.
Disciplinary decisions about the conduct of teachers that have held an education certificate in Manitoba since 1960 would be archived in a provincial teachers registry.
That system, Taillefer said, will launch early next year after more than 20 years in the making.
Decades-long career in education
A spokesperson for the minister of education said in a statement that Taillefer’s appointment is “an important step forward” to enact the legislation, adding she brings vast expertise to the job, after having worked both in classrooms and in administration.
The commissioner designate started her education career teaching in the Winnipeg School division at Churchill High School, before working her way up through several other schools and ultimately becoming principal at Brock Corydon School.
She then went to work as a staff officer at the Manitoba Teachers’ Society and rose to the position of general secretary. She left that union in 2021 to head the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation.
Taillefer said she has dedicated her decades-long career to upholding the standards of public education, and ensuring teachers work in a fair and understandable system that also sets a high bar for qualifications and training.
Grant Jackson, the Progressive Conservatives’ education critic, said the Opposition party supported the creation of an online registry for Manitoba’s teachers.
But in a statement, he accused the NDP government of trying to “manipulate the process” by “handpicking” Taillefer — a union executive — saying that puts “the union ahead of students.”
Taillefer, a former teacher, rejected concerns raised about her ability to be impartial and independent when investigating complaints of teacher misconduct.
“The work that I’ve done, people know my values and ethics and my commitment to public education,” she said. “I will die for it.”
Saskatchewan has an independent board that oversees a teacher registry system similar to the one that will be implemented in Manitoba next year, and the system works “exceptionally well” in that province, Taillefer said.
She said she hopes to bring some of the successes of that system to Manitoba to build a similar level of confidence among educators and parents in the disciplinary process.
The board also needs to ensure accountability, predictability and consistent application of the province’s legislation, she said.
The Canadian Centre for Child Protection, an organization that lobbied to be part of the consultation process behind the bill, said in a statement it is “anxiously waiting” for the launch of the new framework, which the organization hopes will ultimately increase safety within schools.
“The previous system lacked transparency and accountability and contained some inherent conflicts of interest,” the CCCP’s statement said. “We hope it will encourage parents and students to come forward with concerns over problematic behaviours … rather than stay silent.”
Teachers’ union pleased
Sandy Nemeth, president of the Manitoba School Boards Association, told CBC News that the commissioner’s role is a significant duty with an important mandate.
Taillefer’s knowledge and expertise in public education will have to be met with the “hallmarks of fairness, impartiality and objectivity” the new position requires, she said.
Manitoba Teachers’ Society president Nathan Martindale said in a news release that the organization is pleased with Taillefer’s appointment.
However, the union will continue advocating for hearing panels — responsible for hearing complaints of misconduct as ordered by the commissioner — to be composed mainly of teachers. The law says hearing panels will be made up from a roster of 12 people appointed by the education minister — four teachers, four people nominated by the Manitoba School Boards Association and four public representatives who have never been teachers.
Heading into her new role next year, Taillefer said teachers and parents in Manitoba have shown some apprehension about the discipline process.
But she said at its core, the province’s registry and her new role are just an amelioration of an existing system.
“It is about upholding a standard of a profession that is for the most part … working just well.”