The government of Ontario (Canada) announced, in December 1979, its position on three major issues of school governance currently in dispute in the Ottawa and Carleton school systems. The first announcement (overriding recommendations made in 1974 by the Mayo Commission and again in March 1979 in the government's "Education Green Paper") was that the present boundaries between the two boards of education would remain the same. This government position may, however, be temporary, since shifting populations may necessitate future regionalization of school boards. The second announcement was the appointment of a one-man arbitrator between local school boards and the Ministry of Education--a step that could be seen as a way for the government to exert pressure at the local level. The third and most controversial announcement was to deny the request by all four Ottawa-Carleton school boards for the creation of a homogeneous French-language school board for the region's 21,000 francophone students. The government intends, instead, to establish clearly defined English and French language "sections" on both the Ottawa and Carleton school boards. This decision now raises problems of equal representation, role definition, the division of responsibilities, allocation of resources, and so forth. (IW)