Quebec teachers’ federation calls for Drainville to resign as education minister

The two major education unions, the CSQ and the FAE, are denouncing the cuts of at least $570 million to education and are attacking Minister Bernard Drainville’s lack of leadership.

The Fédération autonome de l’enseignement (FAE) is going so far as to call for his resignation as Minister of Education, while the Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ) asserts that “confidence in his leadership has been seriously undermined.”

The two unions maintain that these cuts of at least $570 million will inevitably affect student services.

Speech therapists and psychologists on disability or maternity leave who will not be replaced, as well as cuts in food aid for students, were mentioned in an interview on Monday with FAE President Mélanie Hubert.

There was also talk of tightening access criteria for special classes. However, if fewer students with special needs have access to special classes, this will mean that they will have to be integrated into regular classes, which will increase teachers’ workload, she deplored.

“There’s nothing left to cut in education. Let’s face it, there was a big cleanup under the Liberals 10 years ago,” Hubert said.

At the CSQ, President Éric Gingras also criticized Minister Drainville’s reluctance to defend education. “We wonder where this government’s political will is to make education a priority. Where is the Minister of Education to defend his network? We have to stop the nonsense and the semantic dodges: persisting in saying that these are not budget cuts and that we’re only asking to respect budgets is taking staff – and parents too, for that matter – for fools.”

Éric Pronovost, president of the Fédération du personnel de soutien scolaire de la CSQ, says that Minister Drainville’s “confidence in his leadership is seriously damaged”.

Hubert of the FAE goes further, calling for his departure as Minister of Education. “Right now, he’s spending more time defending the third link than he is defending his school system. So, for us, he’s no longer the right man for the job.”

“When the government told us it was making education a priority, we expected investments and measures that would prioritize student success and teacher recognition. But the opposite is really true. We are faced with dizzying cuts, camouflaged in a jovial discourse based on accounting freedoms. Let’s be frank: the cuts announced are the result of political choices, such as tax cuts and lower school taxes,” criticized Richard Bergevin, President of the CSQ-affiliated Fédération des syndicats de l’enseignement.

The Minister’s version

Last Wednesday, at a press briefing, Minister Drainville acknowledged that difficult choices would have to be made, given the budgetary constraints.

He specified that the government would slow the pace of growth in the education budget, which would increase by five percent instead of seven percent in previous years.

“The direction I’ve given to school service centers is to make this money work better, to be more efficient, to respect budgets, without touching student services, or at least without touching them as much as possible. I’m not saying it’s not an effort; it’s an effort that I’m asking for, that we’re asking for. Yes, we’re going to have to make some tough choices,” he said at the time.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews