(Quebec) The cities of Quebec are “furious” against the Legault government which has required them since 2020 to give up buildings and land free of charge for the construction or expansion of schools. They ask the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, to correct the situation with his reform of school governance.
In interview with The Press, the mayor of Varennes, in Montérégie, and president of the Union of Quebec Municipalities (UMQ), Martin Damphousse, is not getting angry. His association, which represents 85% of the population of the province, was not even entitled to an acknowledgment of receipt when it wished to participate in the public hearings of Bill 23 which end on Wednesday.
“Have you ever seen that education is a municipal responsibility? It never was! […] In 2020, in the middle of the night and under a gag order, without any consultation, the government added a provision [au projet de loi 40] which allows school service centers [d’imposer] towns with the land they want for future schools”, he denounces.
Result: since the adoption of the law, 18% of towns have been forced to transfer buildings or land free of charge to the school network. In some cases, expropriations had to be made.
A survey conducted by the UMQ estimates that the average value of sold properties is 2.9 million. For some municipalities, the bill is even higher. In Montreal, a building worth $6.1 million was sold. In Lanaudière, another building had a value of 4.5 million.
“At Otterburn Park, [un terrain cédé] cost the City $12 million. That’s the value of their annual budget! However, it is not our responsibility,” asserts Mr. Damphousse. In 2020, the former president of the UMQ and today CAQ minister Suzanne Roy deplored that the government grants unelected people the power to intervene in the tax field of cities.
Consequence: to comply with the law and meet the demands of school service centers, cities place these expenses on their debt. Previously, former school boards and municipalities had to negotiate. Quebec complained that school construction projects were dragging on for lack of agreement.
Densifying cities and schools
The president of the UMQ, Martin Damphousse, believes that the logic pursued by the cities, which want to densify their territory, must also apply to the school environment. In the future, schools must be built on high ground rather than taking over “gigantic land”.
PHOTO ANDRÉ PICHETTE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Martin Damphousse, Mayor of Varennes and President of the Union of Quebec Municipalities
Young people, instead of being on their cell phones, they go up the stairs and do physical exercise. This is a good thing ! The reality is that we will take four times less land area for the same building.
Martin Damphousse, president of the UMQ
The current rule, insists Mr. Damphousse, “does not hold water”. Each time a board of directors in a school service center renews itself and demands land, “new towns are enraged and the discontent grows”.
CEOs fear for their jobs
In addition, directors general of school service centers, whom the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, wants to be able to appoint or fire in the future, fear for their position.
“There is certainly a fear and we propose [au ministre d’intégrer] a safety net with a formal evaluation process from the beginning of the year where expectations are specified,” says Lucien Maltais, president of the Association des directions générale scolaire du Québec (ADGSQ).
In his Bill 23, Mr. Drainville gives himself powers hitherto exercised by the boards of directors of school service centers in order to appoint their directors general. It also adopts levers that enable it to undo decisions made locally when, in its view, they contravene the orientations of the government.
Mr. Maltais fears that this new power, which he suggests removing from the bill, will be used according to headlines in the media when they make the government look bad.
However, difficult decisions that are made by general management are sometimes necessary and considered, he says.
“If the minister wants to go ahead anyway with [ce nouveau pouvoir]he would do well to form a committee that will [analyser] all relevant information used to make a decision. If this decision does not respect the laws and regulations, [le ministre pourra] revise it,” said the president of the ADGSQ.
According to him, this new power that the minister is giving himself “is useless and could create, on a case-by-case basis, [avec] a rapid judgment on a situation without having taken all the information”.