Far fewer candidates in Peel are running for trustee in the upcoming Oct. 26 municipal election, compared with previous elections, since the Ford government reduced the compensation and authority of the role.

At the close of nominations last week, a total of 51 candidates had signed on to run for the Peel District School Board (PDSB), down 35 percent from the 2022 election. For the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board (DPCDSB), the overall decline was even steeper at nearly 40 percent.

Over the past year, the Ford government has introduced measures that diminish the trustee role, including capping their honoraria at $10,000 (PDSB trustees previously received about $27,000). It stripped their ability to fire their boards’ chief executive officers (formerly directors of education) without the written approval of the education minister, and shifted more control over board budgets to the CEOs and the minister. The province has recently proposed a regulation that would require the CEOs to confirm any trustees’ motions or board decisions before they take effect. And, it has given no indication as to when it will end its takeover of the PDSB, the DPCDSB, and the other six boards under its supervision.

Trustee elections are typically eclipsed by the councillor and mayoral races, with extremely low voter participation. In 2022, only 18 percent of eligible voters in Brampton, and 13 percent in Mississauga cast a ballot for a trustee at the Peel District School Board (PDSB), the second largest board in Ontario after the TDSB.

Lower turnout was one of the reasons Education Minister Paul Calandra questioned the value of trustees last year when he floated the possibility of eliminating them altogether.

But voter engagement hasn’t always been this paltry. Longtime PDSB trustee Brad MacDonald recalls there was robust public interest in trustees and their priorities before the Mike Harris Conservative government established provincial control of public education funding and removed the ability of school boards to raise their own money through property taxes in the late 1990s.

Today, he said, “a lot of people don’t even know what a trustee is—until they need your help.”

When he was first elected to the board 23 years ago, his honorarium was $5,000. It’s never been about the money, he said; he considers it a volunteer role, so he’s unfazed by the prospect of the latest honoraria limit.

During his time on the Peel board, MacDonald has weathered various provincial governments and controversies. As recent polls indicate a decline in Premier Doug Ford’s public approval rating, MacDonald is running again this fall in Mississauga Ward 2 and 8, with the expectation he may outlast the current provincial government, too.

“Life is always about a pendulum. You swing one way, you swing back to the other,” he said. “I want to be around to make sure when we’re back to what it should be, that I’m around to help support the community and the parents and the students.”

The education minister placed the PDSB under provincial supervision in January 2026. According to the board’s budget 2026-27 report, the appointed supervisor Heather Watt has reduced spending by $24.1 million for a budget of nearly $2.2 billion. But even though boards are required to balance their budgets, those reductions still leave the PDSB with a projected deficit of $10.9 million in 2026-27.

Dissatisfaction with the province’s takeover is, in part, why some candidates in Peel say they’ve decided to run for trustee for the first time.

“When they announced that they were basically replacing all of the trustees with this appointed supervisor, I kind of stepped back and I’m like, ‘But why?’” said first-time PDSB candidate Denise Dani. “No offense to the province or anything like that, but I didn’t feel by doing that, that they were going in the right direction.”

Dani is competing against nine other candidates in Brampton Wards 9 and 10 to replace Satpaul Singh Johal, who is running for regional councillor this year.

Harish Shroff, also a first-time PBSD candidate, said he was motivated to vie for trusteeship after he banded together with fellow parents earlier this spring to push back against the board’s changes, made under supervision, to how special education is delivered at his youngest child’s school. Whenever budget cuts are necessary, Shroff said, it’s critical to consider how they will affect students’ lives—something he feels did not happen when the board decided to reduce the number of contained special education classes at his child’s school. “What is going to be the impact? Are we just doing it because the funding is down and this is the best way to do it, or this is the easiest way to do it?” he said.

Shroff is facing off against incumbent Jill Promoli and two others in Mississauga Wards 6 and 11.

In total, there are only 25 candidates running for Brampton’s five trustee positions on the PDSB, 23 candidates for the six PDSB positions in Mississauga, and three for the single board seat in Caledon.

By contrast, in 2022, 37 candidates ran in Brampton, 40 in Mississauga, and one in Caledon.