Municipalities want Quebec government to keep school sports facilities open evenings, weekends

On Thursday, the mayors of Montreal, Pierrefonds-Roxboro, LaSalle, Verdun, and Varennes, and the president of the Union of Municipalities of Quebec were in Montreal asking the Quebec government to continue their funding for school sports facilities to remain open on evenings and weekends for community members based on an agreement to share facilities between the two levels of government.

On Dec. 18 of last year, the Quebec government notified school boards that it was ending financial support as of Jan. 11 for schools to stay open for community groups offering sports and cultural programs.  

“The people that will be the most affected are associations, sports associations, citizens, elders, families, day camps. This is where we just feel like it’s not fair because we will respect our part. We will never, we will never do that to schools saying, well, right now, if you want the kids to try for the first time in skating, you’re going to have to pay,” said Valérie Plante, Mayor of Montreal.

“We’re not going to say that because we believe that, you know, we’re a community. This is an ecosystem of how we support sports and social activities. So right now, there’s one party that just decided to go on the side, not respecting the deal and not even talking to us.”  

Jim Beis, the Pierrefonds-Roxboro Borough mayor, added, “we’re caught against the wall and the government often times and they’ve done this time and I use the analogy is that they wave that carrot we start eating from that carrot and then all of a sudden they take that carrot away and they say well now you have to defend for yourselves and that’s I can’t speak for the others but this is how I feel about it and I feel that it’s a disservice to the citizens that pay taxes to be able to use these facilities and now even put the school boards against the wall because they have to make very difficult decisions as well.”

Plante said that the agreement between the municipalities and the government of Quebec to share facilities includes a clause that either party must be given 12 months for changes to be implemented to the agreement. 

“What we are asking, and I think the population would agree with that, is like, okay, you have to deal with a tight budget, but don’t touch, don’t affect the services to the citizens, because it is for the kids, but also for their families, for the people that arrive in Montreal. Everybody benefits from this sharing of spaces and services and infrastructures,” explained Plante.

Beis says, “now we’re scrambling and you know what there are groups still, there are cities still that do not know that this is coming. Imagine that’s how this message was given to the city, it wasn’t at large. There were many that slipped through the crack and have no idea that the end is near.”

CityNews Montreal reached out to Quebec’s Ministry of Education for comment, but have yet to hear back from them.