Liberal MP Marwah Rizqy says she has already received several photos of dilapidated schools, two days after appealing to all on social media. Mme Rizqy took the initiative to request these photos last Wednesday, when Prime Minister François Legault said he doubted the portrait on the dilapidation of schools.
The proportion of buildings in poor or very poor condition in the education network has gone from 59% to 61% in one year, according to budget documents presented on Tuesday.
Asked about the subject, Mr. Legault said he doubted that all these schools were dilapidated. He suspects the school service centers of inflating the needs to get more money.
The Prime Minister announced in the same breath that he had mandated his Minister responsible for Infrastructure, Jonatan Julien, to review the process for evaluating the dilapidation of schools.
In a press briefing at the National Assembly on Friday morning, Mme Rizqy exhibited several photos which prove, according to her, that a majority of schools in Quebec are in poor condition. In particular, she showed photos of holey floors and piles of mouse droppings.
The MP said that she remembers that when he was a radio host, the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, “had no doubts about the dilapidated state of the schools”.
Today, he replies that he “of course” recognizes the problem. The government is providing $22 billion over 10 years for the renovation, expansion, reconstruction and construction of schools.
Moreover, if we excluded the problems of asphalting and computer cabling, 400 schools would go from rating E or D (very poor condition) to rating C, B or even A (satisfactory), illustrated the minister.
Violence in schools
During an arrest at the Blue Salon on Friday, Mme Rizqy also raised the issue of violence in schools. She said she has observed an increase in violent incidents across Quebec.
The elected representative of Saint-Laurent explained that she had made access to information requests and obtained data, in particular on the seizure of weapons near schools, such as rifles and handguns.
In Laval, for example, 14 weapons were seized in 2021-2022, compared to six weapons in 2018-2019. In Repentigny, no weapons were seized in 2018-2019, but 14 were seized two years later, she said.
Mr. Drainville replied that he was “extremely worried”. He announced that he was preparing a strategy to combat violence in schools. There are “increasingly pressing challenges,” he said.
The Minister added that means were already in place and that police officers are present in certain schools. “If we need to add (means), we will add more,” he said.
He denied Ms.me Rizqy to study the phenomenon in a parliamentary committee before tabling the strategy.
Sexual assault: a telephone line created
In addition, Mr. Drainville announced the creation of a telephone line for reporting and denouncing sexual assaults. An email address already exists: it is signalements@éducation.gouv.qc.ca.
The phone line will be activated in the coming days, the minister said, without giving further details.
Last Tuesday, Mr. Drainville had launched a “general scope” investigation following multiple denunciations and allegations of misconduct of a sexual nature in the school network.
The minister had notably been arrested by the deputy of Quebec solidaire Ruba Ghazal about sexual assaults of which the students of a secondary school in Cowansville, in the Eastern Townships, were allegedly victims.
The actions were denounced to the school administration and the school service center, “but nothing was done to really protect them”, lamented Ms.me Ghazal.
Friday, M.me Rizqy asked the minister to add an independent firm to the ministry’s investigation, in order to dispel any appearance of conflict of interest.