EMSB chair says Quebec's $510 million in cuts to schools will ‘destroy a generation'

Montreal Gazette

6 hours ago

Quebec school officials are warning of looming service cuts for elementary and high school students after Education Minister Bernard Drainville abruptly ordered last-minute budget cuts last week.
English school boards and French school service centres say they must cut at least $510 million from their budgets.
'Based on preliminary assessments, all services will be affected by the cuts, and it will be impossible to fully maintain all services for students,' Dominique Robert, head of the Fédération des centres de services scolaires du Québec, told The Gazette. The FCSSQ represents French school service centres.
The English Montreal School Board, Quebec's largest English board, echoed that view.
For the EMSB, the cuts represent $20 million on an annual budget of $440 million, or 4.5 per cent, said EMSB chair Joe Ortona, who is also president of the Quebec English School Boards Association.
'Over 90 per cent of our budget goes to direct services and salaries,' he said in an interview. 'Even if we abolished every job in the head office, turned off the heating and electricity in all our schools, we wouldn't reach $20 million.'
What the Coalition Avenir Québec government is asking for is 'impossible,' he said. 'They're essentially telling us to close schools, cut teachers, cut staff, have overcrowded classrooms, and just put the entire education system in disarray. It's indecent.'
Drainville has a track record of dropping surprise funding cuts. Earlier this year, school boards and service centres were told to slash $200 million, Ortona said.
He added: 'They are asking us to destroy a generation because they destroyed Quebec's finances.'
In his 2025-26 budget, Quebec Finance Minister Eric Girard forecast a historic deficit of $13.6 billion.
Ortona said the education cuts are an austerity measure fuelled by the fact that 'they're broke, and they don't know where to get money anymore.'
'They have to pay for their incompetence and their scandals — SAAQclic and everywhere else where they mismanaged money,' he said.
SAAQclic is the glitch-plagued digital modernization of Quebec's auto insurance board that came in about $500 million over budget. A public inquiry is investigating what many have described as a fiasco.
Robert of the FCSSQ said schools have limited budget flexibility.
'By mid-June, planning for the upcoming school year is already complete. Staffing plans have been adopted and school organization is nearly finalized.' Eighty per cent of a school service centre's budget is devoted to staff salaries, with the rest going to expenses such as electricity.
'School service centres have a legal obligation to educate, socialize and qualify all students in their territory,' Robert added. 'Unlike the health network, CEGEPs and universities, it is not possible to place students on a waiting list or cap admissions.'
He acknowledged that Quebec's 'budgetary challenge is significant' and said the school network will work with the province to 'ensure that students receive a quality education.'
The FCSSQ said the $510 million is only an estimate — the actual total could be even higher. The organization is working on a 'thorough and rigorous analysis' of the new budget guidelines that will be made public later this week.
Drainville's office defended the budget plan, saying it marks a slowdown in spending growth, not cuts.
The education budget has grown by 58 per cent since the CAQ took power in 2018, reaching $23.5 billion, said Antoine de la Durantaye, a spokesperson for the minister.
'The number of teachers and support staff has grown two to three times faster than student enrolment,' he said. 'We can't continue at this pace indefinitely — we must set targets.'
Quebec says this year's education budget grew by $1.1 billion compared to last year, and staffing levels are expected to rise by two per cent to 152,500 full-time equivalents.
'This is not about cuts, but about a slower rate of budget growth,' de la Durantaye said. While acknowledging the transition may require tough choices, he said the minister is confident school officials will preserve direct services to students.
Ortona described Drainville's characterization of the budget measures as 'misinformation.'
'It's a cut. They used to give us a full pie. Now they're giving us half. How is that not less of a pie?'
Québec solidaire education critic Sol Zanetti also criticized the decision, estimating the cuts could amount to almost $1 billion.
'Forcing schools to cancel hiring by cutting nearly a billion dollars from education is completely absurd, especially amid a teacher and staff shortage,' Zanetti said.
'This has become a regrettable habit of the CAQ: announcing cuts when the National Assembly is closed (for the summer), to throw the system into chaos without having to answer to the public.'
He said Premier François Legault's government has 'squandered Quebecers' tax dollars on failures like SAAQclic and Northvolt, and now they're asking the education system to pay the price.'
Northvolt refers to an electric vehicle battery plant. The Legault government has confirmed that the $270 million it invested in Northvolt's Swedish parent company is now worthless.
Zanetti said the education cuts will have an 'enormous social cost: fewer services for students, more dropouts, more inequality. The CAQ is creating an education crisis that will cost far more in the long run.'
This story was originally published June 16, 2025 at 1:14 PM.