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Cameron Bonesso

for Ottawa Catholic School Board Trustee – Zone 10

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About Cameron 

My name is Cameron Bonesso and I'm running to become your next Ottawa Catholic School Board Trustee for Zone 10, representing Rideau-Vanier, Rideau-Rockcliffe and Somerset wards.

In 2022, I previously ran for OCSB Trustee having achieved the highest vote percentage of any trustee candidate not elected. Now, I'm running again to build upon the work we started to help make the Ottawa Catholic School Board a better place for students, parents and educators.

My story begins in Oshawa, Ontario where I grew up and attended Catholic school from the first grade until graduating high school. My first job was working as an assistant program activity leader with the Boys & Girls Club of Durham where I worked closely with young children living with special needs and disabilities.

After moving to the city to study social science at the University of Ottawa, I'm proud to call Sandy Hill my home having lived in the neighbourhood for over 8 years. I've seen how addiction and the homelessness crisis has impacted the downtown and the families with children that live here. This is what has inspired me to become an advocate for our community and get involved in local politics.

Currently, I work as a political consultant and as the President of CM Solutions which is a consulting firm and call centre that I co-founded in 2020. Since starting my business, I've been able to provide employment for over 20 wonderful people across the country. Before that, I previously worked as an advisor and executive assistant to Members of Parliament. Most notably from my time on Parliament Hill, I played a small role in helping get Trikafta, a life-changing drug for Canadians living with cystic fibrosis, approved for use in Canada at an affordable rate by the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board.

Outside of work, I attend mass at Saint Patrick Basilica in Centretown every Sunday afternoon and enjoy getting to try the many great restaurants in the downtown. To stay fit, I play tennis and run several times a week alongside the Rideau Canal. If you ever see me out in the community, don't be a stranger. Come say hello and let's connect.

This fall's municipal election will give the Catholic ratepayers of Zone 10 an opportunity to decide the future of the Ottawa Catholic School Board. I'm often asked why should I care about the school board if I am not an educator or parent? My response to that is if you're a ratepayer that pays property tax, upwards of 25% of what you pay goes towards the province's core education fund which gets redistributed back to local school boards. If you care about children and their well-being, I encourage you to take an interest in how your local trustee is representing both students and parents.

In January, the incumbent trustee for our zone voted in favour of raising compensation for school board executives that are already making an average of $160,000 plus bonuses per year.

This comes at a time when the provincial government is criticizing the role of school board trustees for approving spending on priorities not related to student achievement. I fully support paying teachers a fair salary for the tireless work they do to support students. We also need to push back on the provincial government when they threaten to take away the role of locally elected trustees that represent their communities. However, it's a misalignment of priorities for our zone's incumbent trustee to give these executives a pay bump. Especially when these same executives attempted to fire bus attendants that support children living with disabilities and special needs while on the bus to and from school.

Our community needs an OCSB Trustee that actually lives in the zone they represent. The incumbent trustee does not.

I'm running for OCSB Trustee because we need new leadership around the board table that is will

  • As a public servant, OCSB Trustees are accountable to the electorate of Catholic ratepayers in the zone they represent. If elected, bringing greater accountability and transparency to the work of the Ottawa Catholic School Board would be one of my top priorities.

    I also believe in having more open communication with ratepayers. I commit to always being accessible to hear your concerns, feedback and suggestions. When important motions or topics come up for debate such as the recent decision impacting bus attendants, I will always seek the input of the parents, students, teachers and other ratepayers I represent before acting on their behalf.

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  • A report published in March of this year by the Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA) outlines that several school boards across Ontario have aging lead infrastructure. The report titled "'F’ for Effort: Ontario is falling behind on getting lead out of school drinking water" highlights Ontario's failure to update its nearly 20-year-old regulation on safe drinking water is putting educators and students at risk.

    Out of all 72 publicly funded school boards in the province, the Ottawa Catholic School Board ranked the 6th worst by the number of tests conducted at schools with drinking water over 10ppb. The report showed the Ottawa Catholic School Board had 22 exceedances over 10ppb in 2024 and 2025. For context, drinking water with 10 parts-per-billion or greater is widely considered unsafe across most of Canada. Lead is highly toxic to children because their developing brains and nervous systems absorb the metal much easier than adults. Health impacts include impairment to cognitive function and reduced attention spans among other impacts.

    If elected, I am committed to working with fellow OCSB Trustees to introduce a motion to instruct the board's Superintendent of Planning and Facilities to undertake an internal review of all aging lead infrastructure including allocating funding for independent third-party testing. Aging lead infrastructure that is proven to lead to unsafe drinking water should be replaced.

  • If elected as trustee, I will work with the board's Special Education Advisory Committee (SEAC) to improve the quality of special education. Under the Education Act, the board's SEAC is responsible for:
     

    • Providing important advice on special education to their local board or school authority.

    • Making recommendations to their board on any matter affecting the establishment, development and delivery of special education programs and services for exceptional students.


    In particular, I believe that the quality of special education offered can be improved by placing greater emphasis on the board's special education "life skills" classes which teaches students functional literacy and provides them with pre-vocational skills. By teaching special needs students life skills in an accommodating classroom, students learn how to live a fulfilling life and make a meaningful impact in society.

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