The purchase of a vast forest by a private school subsidized by the state “raises several questions”, admits the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville. Pressed by Québec solidaire to involve the General Auditor, he assured that “if there are changes to be made, they will be made.”
The minister was called upon to react Thursday to this extraordinary story revealed by the columnist of The Press Francis Vailles Thursday morning.
“The funds paid to private establishments must be used for educational services, not for the acquisition of land or real estate projects,” recalled Bernard Drainville while refusing to comment on the fate of the subsidies granted to Collège Letendre, in Laval.
“Verifications” will be carried out by officials from his ministry, he assures, calling for patience with Québec solidaire and the Parti Québécois, which is calling for the intervention of the Auditor General.
Subsidized private schools must be “accountable” when renewing their accreditation permit, says Bernard Drainville. But no questions were asked by the Ministry of Education about the acquisition of the forest for 13.2 million by Letendre College, in November 2022, reported The Press THURSDAY.
“Scandalized” by these real estate acquisitions, the spokesperson for Québec solidaire in terms of education, Ruba Ghazal, insisted that public money should not be used to “pay for stays in chalets and inexplicable salaries”.
A request for an investigation
In a letter that she sent to the Auditor General of Quebec, Guylaine Leclerc, on Thursday, the MP observed that “while schools in the private network reap profits that they reinvest, certain establishments lack transparency regarding their management financial”.
“The underlying question is whether the money of Quebec taxpayers which must go to financing educational services for students could, on certain occasions, be allocated to other expenditure items (promotion, tuition fees). management, executive salaries, etc.),” she explains, asking him to investigate the subject.
“At first glance, there are very serious governance problems in this matter,” said PQ MP Pascal Paradis, adding that “this is the kind of matter that could merit consideration” by the Auditor General. .
The interim leader of the Liberal Party of Quebec, Marc Tanguay, responded in a more nuanced manner: “at this stage, what is important is to focus on the transparency of administrators.” “Public funds should not be used for a project that would be 100% private,” he nevertheless decided.
With Fanny Lévesque, The Press