Education minister tables bill to fire Haldimand trustee refusing to repay $12K

Education Minister Paul Calandra tabled a bill Monday aiming to fire a Brant Haldimand Norfolk Catholic District School Board trustee, who failed to repay his part of a lavish trip to Italy last year.

The minister says trustee Mark Watson has not repaid the $12,370 he owes to the board, after he and three other trustees took a trip last summer to buy religious art for classrooms, and racked up a bill of around $145,000 after travel expenses.

The Ministry of Education ordered the trustees in April to pay back their travel expenses, for the board to recoup the total funds spent on the art and to provide a new plan to govern their finances.

Calandra introduced legislation that, if passed, would remove the trustee from office, and bar him from running for a trustee position in any school board in the 2026 municipal elections.

WATCH MORE: Haldimand trustee could be removed from position for refusing to repay $12K after Italy trip

Calandra said that the expenses of the trip were both “excessive and unjustifiable.”

“We expect every school board to direct resources to the classroom, not on luxury trips and wasteful spending,” said Calandra in a statement.

“This trustee’s refusal to repay what he owes is exactly why we are reviewing Ontario’s school board governance model, because too often trustees lose sight of their responsibility to students.”

The bill would also make Watson ineligible to fill a trustee vacancy on any Ontario school board until after Nov. 14, 2030.

The ministry previously said that they couldn’t fire the trustee because he is an elected official.

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Back in March, the ministry shared a report which showed that Watson had repaid a little over $1200 of the total and had agreed to continue making payments until May 2028. It’s not clear what the status of this agreement is.

“If the trustee is unwilling to meet the basic standards of accountability, then he should no longer hold a position of public responsibility,” said Calandra in the statement.

“This is about putting students first, something this trustee has failed to do.”

The minister’s announcement follows after Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government launched investigations into several Ontario school boards for financial mismanagement.

CHCH News has reached out to Watson and the school board for comment but has not heard back. 

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