A worrying (and illegal) exodus

Quebec students cross the Ottawa River every day to go to school in Ontario, which is illegal. Some even make the journey by school bus.

“We know we are losing students, but how many?” asks Denis Rossignol, general director of the Hauts-Bois-de-l’Outaouais school service center.

For years, parents from Pontiac have been sending their children to school across the Ontario border.

Some have even called for a school bus service to transport students from Quebec to Ontario.

The exodus is not limited to primary and secondary schools. Thousands of young people leave the Outaouais each year to pursue their higher education in the neighbouring province (see next tab).

“It’s a regular concern,” says Rossignol, about the loss of customers, which sometimes forces schools to close groups.

Informed of the situation, the Ministry of Education indicated that a follow-up will be carried out “to ensure compliance with the law on school attendance.”

With a few exceptions, a child who resides in Quebec is required to attend a school in Quebec.

“When a person witnesses a situation that could compromise a child’s ability to attend school, a disclosure can be made by completing a reporting form,” he recalled.

Students transported by bus

Abitibi-Témiscamingue, which also shares a border with Ontario, is experiencing the same situation.

In Thorne, Ontario, a bus waits every morning for Quebec students on the other side of the Ottawa River, which separates the two provinces.

“He picks up the students and takes them to North Bay,” says Éric Larivière, general manager of the Lac-Témiscamingue school service centre.

The Near North District School Board confirmed that a bus transports 15 Quebec students to an elementary school in its territory every morning. Last year, there were about 20.

These students pay tuition fees “similar to international students,” said the board, Ontario’s equivalent of school service centres.

During the pandemic, parents in Pontiac requested a bus service to transport students from Fort-Coulonge to Pembroke, Ontario, about a 30-minute drive away.

“The school bus company had refused, but had consulted us,” says Denis Rossignol.

Again this year, Mr. Rossignol is aware of the existence of “people who work in Ontario and who transport children there”, which was also confirmed by a source who did not wish to be named because he personally knows one of them.

A ploy used by parents

To successfully enroll their child in an Ontario school, parents “take all sorts of paths,” says Denis Rossignol.

“They find an address in Ontario, either by renting a room or by knowing someone who lends them their civic address for the school year,” he says.

A few years ago, he mentioned the scheme to a school across the border. “The management told me they wouldn’t start doing the pedigree of everyone who enrolled in their school,” he says.

George Sinfield, director general of the Western Quebec English School Board, knows that students cross the Ottawa River every day to get to school.

“There have been cases where parents have changed the legal guardianship of the child so that the child could attend an Ontario school,” he says.

An exodus of unknown magnitude

In Outaouais, 25% of students left high school before graduating in 2021-2022, compared to 16% for Quebec as a whole.

It is the administrative region with the worst rate of people leaving without a diploma or qualification in the province, after Nord-du-Québec.

At the Haut-Bois-de-l’Outaouais school service centre, which serves the Pontiac region, it is even worse: it has reached 32%, or nearly one in three students.

Could proximity to Ontario have something to do with it? Michaël Gaudreault, a professor-researcher in statistics at the Jonquière CEGEP, has studied territorial factors linked to academic perseverance.

Even though it is often used to measure the phenomenon of dropping out of school – which is very real in Outaouais – the rate of leaving without a diploma or qualification does not allow it to be isolated from other causes of dropping out.

In other words, the Ministry of Education is unable to distinguish between a dropout and a student who has transferred to an Ontario school. In both cases, it completely loses track of them.

At the Lac-Témiscamingue school service center, the rate of leaving without a diploma or qualification was close to 29% in 2022-2023.

“It’s sure that [la proximité de l’Ontario] has an impact,” says Éric Larivière.

A passing grade of 50%

Why do parents risk breaking the law by sending their child to school in Ontario?

Éric Larivière, general director of the Lac-Témiscamingue school service centre, mentions several possible reasons. Among them: the offer of simplified courses for students with difficulties.

In Ontario, high school students can complete fewer credits and receive the equivalent of a certificate instead of a diploma, allowing them to access vocational training.

The passing grade is also 50% instead of 60%, as is the case in Quebec. And there is the issue of language, Témiscaming having a large English-speaking population.

Both the Quebec and Ontario programs are “excellent,” Mr. Larivière insists. “I’m not passing judgment on the choice of these parents,” he says.

At Gilbert-Théberge high school in Témiscaming, approximately five or six students transfer to an Ontario school each year, estimates management.

This may not seem like much, but the school has barely a hundred students.

“It definitely has an impact,” says Josée Gauvreau, director of the institution’s French-speaking sector. “We’re doing everything we can to not lose them.”

Among the students who leave, she finds that some are attracted by the special programs offered in North Bay, less than an hour’s drive away.

“These are much larger schools. They have a lot of artistic activities, sports teams. We have difficulty [à offrir autant de programmes]”Our cohorts are so small,” she compares.

Various consequences

The problem is not new. About ten years ago, when he was principal of Sieur-de-Coulonge secondary school in Mansfield-et-Pontefract, Denis Rossignol estimated that he was losing up to ten students per year to Ontario.

Most of the time, parents informed him that they were transferring their child to the Jeanne-Lajoie Catholic school, 45 kilometers on the other side of the border.

“Ten students is half a group. In five years, that could be the equivalent of losing two groups,” explains Mr. Rossignol, referring to the consequences on school organization and funding, which is allocated based on the number of students.

By email, the board of Catholic schools of the Centre-Est, of which Jeanne-Lajoie is a member, affirms “to make [son] better to ensure that all [ses] students meet the eligibility criteria.”

In fact, “students residing in Quebec are not eligible to attend public schools in Ontario, unless they pay tuition fees, for example as international students.”

The council specifies that “between five and eight students” residing in Rapides-des-Joachims, Quebec, attend the Jeanne-Lajoie Catholic school center per year.

“This particular situation is explained by the fact that these students have specific needs that the Hauts-Bois-de-l’Outaouais school board in Quebec cannot meet,” he explains.

Solutions sought

The Ministry of Education must find a way to measure the flight of customers to Ontario, believes Denis Rossignol.

For example, a few years ago there was talk of cross-referencing the number of health insurance cards with lists of registered students. “We are looking for solutions,” he says.

“If, for some reason, a young person chooses to go to Ontario, that’s their business,” says researcher Michaël Gaudreault.

What is important, however, is “to provide the opportunity to have a quality education in Quebec.”

“Have we offered these young people all the conditions favourable to their success here in Quebec? That is the question we must ask ourselves as a Quebec education system.”