Latest news with #Ortona
Montreal Gazette
3 days ago
- Business
- Montreal Gazette
Quebec's English school boards to mount legal fight over budget cuts
By English school boards in Quebec plan to challenge the province's new education funding rules in court, calling them unconstitutional and unworkable. The cuts, which were initially announced in June, could force boards to cancel programs, reduce special education services, or even close schools, said Joe Ortona, president of the Quebec English School Boards Association. Ortona said at the centre of the dispute is Quebec's move to block boards from accessing their accumulated budget surpluses. The funds were saved for future needs and belong to the boards, not the province. 'That money belongs to us,' he said. While the province hasn't said it will take the money back, the uncertainty has left boards cautious. 'We've learned to expect anything from this government.' The new funding rules also introduce what Ortona called 'unrealistic and arbitrary' conditions. For example, one limit he described was how many staff boards can hire. This comes despite the period for staffing already being finalized in May under union agreements. 'Many boards can't meet the staffing cap without breaking union contracts,' he added. Ortona also warned the rules could force cuts to support staff and student services. Areas already under pressure, such as speech therapy, psychological services, and tutoring, could face deeper reductions. A legal challenge is being prepared and is expected to be filed before the school year begins. He said some boards have already signed on, while others are reviewing their finances before joining. 'We've been working with our lawyers since these cuts were announced,' Ortona said. 'We're trying to protect our right to deliver the services students need.' He did not provide further details about the legal action, saying it would be premature to comment.
Edmonton Journal
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Edmonton Journal
Things to do in Edmonton this weekend: Alberta Circus Arts, Burton Cummings/Tom Cochrane and more
Article content Details: 4 p.m. – midnight Fri., 11 a.m. – midnight Sat. at Four Seasons Park, Beaumont, $179 regular weekend pass, $89/Fri., $129/Sat. at Ortona remembered: This multi-venue show celebrating the storied Ortona community, haven for artists and former home of The Film and Video Arts Society (FAVA), starts with an art show of drawings of the space by Jimmy Golden, Lost Ortona, at Collins Studio Gallery (11741 94 St.) running through July 19. Then, over at Metro Cinema (8712 109 St.) Thursday, Ortona Diaspora is a group show of locals moved by the space, the films starting at 6:30 p.m. Trincan steel orchestra and Edmonton Tonight will play music afterwards. Finally, in the basement theatre of Art Gallery of Alberta next Saturday, a 1 p.m. reception and 2:30 p.m. artist panel discussion about artists studio spaces in Edmonton looks at where we are today in the world of collectives. Party!
Montreal Gazette
18-06-2025
- Business
- Montreal Gazette
EMSB chair says Quebec's $510 million in cuts to schools will ‘destroy a generation'
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.
Montreal Gazette
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Montreal Gazette
English school boards blast Bill 94 as an abuse of government power
Quebec Politics By QUEBEC — A presentation Thursday of Quebec English school boards' view on a new bill reinforcing secularism in Quebec schools slipped into a heated debate over the significance of religious symbols. In a 15-minute virtual exchange, all in French, between Education Minister Bernard Drainville and the president of the Quebec English School Board Association (QESBA), Joe Ortona, visions clashed on the central pillar of the bill. 'Do you agree with me that wearing a religious symbol is sending a religious message,' Drainville asked Ortona during a presentation to the committee of the legislature examining Bill 94, an act to reinforce laicity in the education network. 'Not at all,' Ortona replied crisply. 'It's a personal choice. Our teachers are evaluated on their competences and their neutrality and not on their clothes. Imposing a ban on symbols would target personal beliefs.' Adding a second layer to his argument, Ortona told Drainville the Coalition Avenir Québec government itself recognizes it is in violation of such rights itself because it has opted to makes use of the Constitution's notwithstanding clause overriding rights and freedoms to shield Bill 94 from court challenges. 'But people who see a religious symbol you are wearing get a religious message,' Drainville persisted. 'Religion is a personal choice as is wearing certain clothing,' Ortona countered. 'It does not make a classroom into a religious institution. I think even children can make this distinction. And they probably don't even know certain clothing has a religious significance.' Drainville said some teachers have voluntarily chosen to remove their symbols while working, a sign some employees feel their employment in a school carries responsibilities. He also said it is false to say people have lost jobs over the law. But Ortona countered that teachers removed religious symbols not by choice, but to follow the law. 'We maintain that a right is a right,' he said. 'We judge our workers on the quality of their teaching. This is how we judge our school personnel. Not on their clothing.' The clash of visions was inevitable. QESBA is involved in the legal challenge to Bill 21 on state secularism, which imposed the first ban in 2019 on persons in authority, such as teachers, from wearing religious symbols such as a hijab, turban or crucifix while on the job. Conceived in the wake of incidents of religion creeping into Bedford elementary school in Côte-des-Neiges in 2024 and other institutions, Bill 94 proposes to expand the ban to cover everyone working in a school, from janitors and cafeteria workers to library volunteers and the plumber who enters the school to fix the sink. In its brief to the committee, QESBA argues the 'wall-to-wall' measures Bill 94 will impose on the entire school network are based on isolated events at Bedford and 'fragmentary findings that are far from a solid evidentiary basis to justify new binding legislative measures.' 'Bill 94 is a sledgehammer solution in search of a problem,' the brief says. 'This bill instrumentalizes the concept of laicity, creating a false problem to justify excessive centralization of powers. It sets a dangerous precedent for the balance between teachers' duties, individual rights and institutional responsibilities.' The legislation also does not take into account that the English network, which includes nine school boards, is not subject to the same governance regime as the French system, the brief adds. The English boards benefit from the protection of Section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which for now means the new law can't apply. None of those considerations were discussed by Drainille in his exchange with Ortona. Drainville instead questioned Ortona for his views on clauses in the bill, such as the one that would put an end to teachers booking off for religious holidays. Ortona responded that the issue is not really a problem in the English boards because collective agreements already include provisions for staff to be absent for personal reasons 'with no justification needed.' Asked by Drainville if he considers the notwithstanding clause a legitimate tool, Ortona answered it depends on how a government uses it. As the exchange closed, a flustered Drainville asked Ortona: 'Is there anything good in the law or should it all be tossed in the trash?' 'The short answer is no,' answered Ortona. 'It solves no problems and is of no use.' Ortona also levelled some criticism at the government for allowing the Bedford situation drag on for seven years before acting. 'If it goes all the way to the minister, it has gone on too long,' Ortona said, adding a situation like this would never have been allowed to drag on in the English school system. The QESBA presented its brief on the last day of hearings into the legislation, which will now forward to the next step in the adoption process. The government hopes to have the bill adopted before the June recess. Opinions have been split on the bill. While some pro-secularism groups such as the Mouvement laïque Québécois welcomed the legislation and urged it to go further, others, particularly unions representing thousands of teachers, questioned how the bill can be applied. On Thursday, the Centrale des syndicats du Québec representing 225,000 teachers, presented a brief calling for a moratorium on the expanded ban on religious symbols so the government and unions can assess the real impact it will have. CSQ president Éric Gingras told the committee the ban risks aggravating the current personnel shortages in the network, which will only deprive students of quality services. 'It will have a negative impact on a network that does not need any more negative impacts,' Gingras said in an exchange with Drainville. Éric Pronovost, also with the CSQ, highlighted practical problems enforcing the ban. He mentioned the example of a school employee going to the home of a student to offer help and encountering the student's fully veiled mother. Under the bill, the employee could not offer a service because he or she has to respect the law, which requires uncovered faces at all times between parties. 'The employee thus becomes an intrusion,' Pronovost said. 'The bill creates a pressure on the employee going to deliver a service. How are we to manage this on the ground?' Drainville responded the mother would be allowed to wear a hijab that does not cover the face, but had no further answers. The Association Montréalaise des directions d'établissements scolaire also said the bill will cause still more shortages in the network. 'How will be able to recruit volunteers for our libraries with this?' asked association president Kathleen Legault.
