The Western Quebec School Board is holding off on adopting its 2025-2026 budget with hopes an upcoming court decision will allow it to reclaim control of its surplus to fill some of the funding gaps left by education cuts over the past year.
At an Aug. 26 council meeting, the school board presented commissioners with a balanced budget of $153,596,907 for the upcoming academic year, despite being ordered to cut about $1.2 million in planned spending since last winter.
The first round of cuts came in December, forcing board staff to find about $1 million that could be shaved from their budget without affecting student services, as per the province’s orders.
Then in June, the province pulled another $570 million from the education budget, again demanding cuts not affect students. After significant push back, $540 million was reinjected into the budget, ultimately leaving the WQSB with another $200,000 or so to cut from its planned budget over the summer.
Last week, WQSB director general George Singfield said the board managed to respect the cuts by terminating 17 positions in the board office, both by not renewing certain contracts and not replacing some people who had retired. He said some of these people were reassigned to other positions.
“We didn’t touch the schools. We have worked with schools but [the positions] are not in schools, they’re board office employees,” Singfield emphasized.
Despite being presented with a balanced budget, board commissioners voted unanimously to postpone its adoption until Sept. 23.
Fighting for budget control
In years past, Quebec school boards and service centres have been allowed to use as much as 15 per cent of their accumulated surpluses to balance their budgets if funding was short, but this year that changed.
New budgetary constraints attached to the 2025-2026 budget prohibit boards and service centers from adopting deficit budgets, as well as from using any of their accumulated surpluses to balance deficits.
At a special council meeting held on Aug. 13, the WQSB was among the nine English school boards across the province that voted to join a legal challenge of these regulations being launched by the Quebec English School Board’s Association (QESBA).
The challenge argues that these budgetary measures undermine section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees the English-speaking minority language community the right to manage and control their school boards.
“QESBA maintains that these restrictions undermine the boards’ ability to make locally accountable financial decisions in the best interest of their students,” explains QESBA’s press release announcing the legal challenge.
The school boards are seeking a stay, which would suspend the application of these budget rules until the court challenge is heard by a judge.
“We accept we all have to tighten our belts and accept budget cuts, but under article 23 of Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms it was very clear that as minority language right holders we have the right to the control and management of our budgets,” said board chair Joanne Labadie in the Aug. 26 meeting, explaining why commissioners voted to support the legal challenge on Aug. 13.
She said she feels it is important to fight to regain control of board finances given the CAQ government’s financial challenges.
“One of my fears is that they will claw it back. We know the government is in an austerity situation. They’re shaking the piggy bank as much as they can.”
Singfield said the board expects to hear on whether the stay has been granted on Sept. 15.
“The stay application is a big deal, because it would profoundly change our ability to manage our finances,” he said.
“If the stay is granted, we’ll sit down and relook at things and see where the board will help use its accumulated surplus.”
