The increasing need for maintenance, building expansion and equipment purchases in CEGEPs is forcing Quebec to “prioritize” the “most important” projects, justifies the Minister of Higher Education, Pascale Déry.
The elected official was called upon to justify Thursday morning, at the entrance to the Coalition avenir Québec caucus in Rimouski, her ministry’s decision to send a letter at the end of July to all public CEGEPs in the province in which they learned that they will have to reduce, in some cases by more than half, the expenses related to their investment budget this year.
“All the projects are coming at the same time, so at some point, we have to prioritize certain projects. We can’t do everything at the same time,” the minister said.
Several developments underway in the province’s CEGEPs have seen their bills “explode” in recent months, the elected official continued. In this context, “I need to at least set an annualized ceiling to monitor the progress of projects” in the interests of “sound management of public finances,” she argued.
“We find ourselves in a bottleneck where we have to renovate, improve, ensure the maintenance of assets in all these establishments and that is what we have been doing since 2019,” added the minister, who assured that her department’s investments in the college network “are colossal.” “It’s just that the needs are colossal too,” which forces Quebec to make choices, she insisted several times, in response to questions from the media.
Major impacts
The reduction in authorized investments this year has, however, been drastic in several establishments. This is particularly the case for the Cégep de l’Abitibi-Témiscamingue, which had planned to spend $10.5 million as part of its investment budget, before Quebec instead imposed a limit of $2.8 million, in the middle of summer, confided Wednesday evening to Duty its general manager, Sylvain Blais. The “loss of earnings” is therefore around 6 million, he continues.
Result: the CEGEP must postpone until next year the construction of a new student residence in Rouyn-Noranda, in the midst of a housing crisis, in addition to revising downward the acquisition of equipment needed by several of its classes. A situation that will particularly affect the CEGEP’s two new programs offered this fall, namely Physiotherapy Techniques and Architectural Technology, indicates its director general.
“There will certainly be a lack of certain equipment that would be desirable to have to facilitate the acquisition of skills” by students in these programs, warns Mr. Blais, who must also postpone work estimated at $400,000 to renovate the facade of the entrance to his campus in Val-d’Or, which was to take place this year.
“The contractor who submitted a bid to me, we’ve asked him twice to submit a bid to do this entrance. So, if I don’t give him the contract, but I ask him in two years for a bid to do the same damn door, he’s going to say to himself ‘stop playing the fool’,” says the general manager, who also expects the bill for this project to increase if it cannot take place this year.
No program threatened, assures Déry
Pascale Déry, for her part, assured Thursday that the contracts that have already been awarded by CEGEPs will be respected. “We will ensure that the projects in progress continue,” she said, before adding that no program is threatened by this new directive from her ministry.
“I’m going to make sure that all the programs are up and running. We’re not going to cancel programs, we’re not going to close programs, we’re far from that,” she said.
Questioned Thursday afternoon in Rimouski, Premier François Legault defended himself against underinvesting in the maintenance of the college network, as the Fédération des cégeps deplores. “Since I became premier, we have increased the Quebec Infrastructure Plan by 50%. I understand that people think that’s not enough, but at some point, I have a responsibility: we manage taxpayers’ money,” he insisted.
Directors general of CEGEPs from different regions of Quebec are meeting with members of Minister Déry’s team on Thursday afternoon to share their concerns with them regarding this new directive and to try to obtain answers to their questions.
With Marie-Michèle Sioui