Province to give Quebec schools $740M for renovations in 2018
‘We are able to (fund) all the acceptable projects brought to us,’ minister says
Quebec says it will spend an unprecedented $740 million to maintain, renovate and expand schools in 2018.
“It’s a historic amount,” Education Minister Sébastien Proulx said Monday as he made the announcement at École Iona in Montreal’s Snowdon district.
“Normally, the minister comes out and says, ‘I was only able to (fund) a certain number of projects’ ” put forward by school boards, he said. “For the first time this year, because we had the capacity, because we made this infrastructure choice, we are able to (fund) all the acceptable projects brought to us.”
In total, 2,071 projects will be funded at 1,282 schools.
The $740 million also includes $15 million for unplanned emergency repairs such as replacing broken lockers and fixing faulty floors, he said.
Proulx said the money will help boards fix dilapidated schools and make schools “more attractive and stimulating,” which in turn will improve educational success.
Not only are schools getting $85 million more than last year, but the province is authorizing projects two months earlier than usual so boards have more time to plan upgrades, he said.
The early authorization will give school boards more time to prepare renovations and issue public tenders, said Catherine Harel Bourdon, president of the Commission scolaire de Montréal (CSDM), Quebec’s largest school board.
But she said the pace of investment will have to continue because the CSDM alone will need more than $1 billion to fix its schools, the majority of which are in disrepair.
Mayor Valérie Plante welcomed the announcement.
“The needs of Montreal schools are great,” Plante said. “Too many students and teachers are in schools that are aging and in great need of love.”
The Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ), which represents 130,000 education employees, including teachers and support workers, reacted cautiously to the news.
“After seeing this government squeezing investment in education for years, so much the better that it finally intends to repair the damage, especially to buildings,” said CSQ president Louise Chabot. “However, it is all well and good to announce hundreds of millions of dollars worth of work, but we must ensure that there is enough staff to carry out the work.”
In recent years, some school repairs have been postponed because budget cuts have left boards without enough staff to plan projects and oversee tenders, Chabot said.
Almost 40 per cent of the cash — $287 million — will go to Montreal’s five school boards, which have plans to undertake 414 projects.
Here’s how the money will be divided among them:
Commission scolaire de Montréal: $191 million.
Commission scolaire Marguerite-Bourgeoys: $44 million.
Commission scolaire de la Pointe-de-l’Île: $23 million.
Lester B. Pearson School Board: $16 million.
English Montreal School Board: $12.5 million.
Proulx said the government set aside $8 billion to maintain and renovate schools between 2017 and 2027. Every year, the government of the day decides how much to allocate for that 12-month period.