The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Legislative Council approved the Motion Regarding Amendment to the Constitution on Feb. 13. Two items of the motion are now up for student vote on the Winter 2025 Referendum ballot: The decision to hire instead of elect the SSMU Vice-President (VP) Finance, and the choice to cut the SSMU VP Sustainability and Operations role entirely.

Hugo-Victor Solomon, current SSMU VP External, began drafting a motion in the Fall term to make VP Finance hired after learning that under a VP Finance with no fiscal or accounting experience who dispensed funding liberally, the SSMU went into a $1.3 million CAD deficit.

Both Solomon and SSMU President Dymetri Taylor attributed current VP Finance Pauline Jolicouer’s background in finance as a reason why SSMU has managed to achieve a $290,000 CAD surplus this year. Solomon described the prevention of disaster and positive ripple effect having a strong VP Finance has on SSMU’s operations.

“Given that SSMU does manage a portfolio of essentially $10 million [CAD], you want to have faith that someone in that position knows how to do their job, so that everyone else can do theirs,” Solomon said.

Gursween Padda, VP Finance of the South Asian Studies Students Association, expressed a hired SSMU VP Finance could ensure their financial competency and timely reimbursement for SSMU clubs and services.

“[A VP Finance’s] nucleus is really money, and making sure they’re getting the money they need to run and not go into debt,” Padda told The Tribune. “And that requires particular skills.”

According to section 10.3 of the SSMU Constitution, if the referendum question passes, the VP Finance will be hired by the Board of Directors (BoD) at the same time other executives are elected by the student body. Anyone interested can put their name forward for consideration, just as in an election. Taylor clarified that either a Board-appointed hiring committee, or the Legislative Council, would look predominantly at these candidates’ experience in finance to select a VP, although Taylor reported SSMU is still deciding between “options on the table” for selecting this committee.

Padda expressed that she felt it would be best to have an external body hire the SSMU VP Finance, to avoid conflicts of interest.

“When the governing body has so much power that they can choose who’s elected or not, that’s not democracy,” Padda said.

The appointed candidate would then be placed on SSMU’s Referendum ballot for ratification by the student body, providing what Solomon termed a “veto” mechanism in case SSMU members are not in favour of the recommended candidate. If students invoke this “veto” privilege, SSMU would have to hold an additional special Referendum to appoint a new candidate, or the BoD may “delegate them responsibility of the position [without] the voting power,” according to Solomon. This would mirror Hamza Abu Alkhair’s appointment to Director of Clubs and Services in January 2025.

Taylor and Solomon described how concerns about the VP Finance role emerged alongside discussions about the VP Sustainability and Operations’ utility, following Meg Baltes’ resignation in November 2024. Both Taylor and Solomon reported that after the SSMU by-election to establish a new VP Sustainability and Operations failed to meet quorum, executives did not experience any internal issues with portfolio management. 

Solomon’s motion thus seeks to eliminate the VP Sustainability and Operations role and formally designate its responsibilities to the VP Internal, excluding building oversight, which would be delegated to the President. Taylor explained how from an executive standpoint, the VP Sustainability and Operations role is expendable, having been established in 2016 but only occupied twice since. 

“Compared to all the other portfolios, the VP Internal and the VP Sus-Ops likely have, quote-unquote, the ‘least’ amount of work,” Taylor said. “They’re both kind of the halves of what makes the actual position in its entirety.”
Solomon and Taylor additionally argued for the $42,000 CAD cutting the role would save. Taylor described some potential uses as hiring a third porter for the University Centre to help extend building hours, or contracting internal security for Gert’s. The two also cited a consultation process listed in the Motion of speaking extensively with SSMU paid staff, before soliciting general student feedback in mid-January through the SSMU Instagram.