EMSB chair says Quebec’s $510 million in cuts to schools will ‘destroy a generation’ By Andy Riga Updated June 16, 2025 4:29 PM Education Minister Bernard Drainville defended the budget plan, saying it marks a slowdown in spending growth — not cuts — after several years of major investments. Jacques Boissinot The Canadian Press 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.”
Read more at: https://www.montrealgazette.com/news/provincial-news/article992728.html#storylink=cpy
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