Quebec’s English school boards to take Legault government to court over budget cuts
Posted July 28, 2025 10:54 am.
Last Updated July 29, 2025 6:11 pm.
The Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) is about to enter another legal challenge against the Legault government’s budget cuts to the province’s educational institutions.
Back in June when the cuts were first announced, QESBA denounced the cuts in a press release, calling them “unconstitutional and unworkable.”
“The government should not expect the kids to pay the price for their mismanagement over the last seven years,” said Joe Ortona, QESBA President. “And that’s what I feel and many people feel this government is doing.”
“These reckless decisions will have devastating and long-term consequences for an entire generation of students,” Ortona continued. “We are denouncing both the substance and the manner of this announcement.”
Ortona says that the announced budget cuts could force boards to cancel programs, reduce special education services, or even close schools.
“Education has been chronically underfunded for a long time now, ”said Ortona. “And so we rely on the accumulated surpluses that we have to make up for some of those losses and to be able to balance our budget, but with the extra resources that we feel that we need to provide, because they’re necessary.”
The Legault government announced on July 16 an additional $540 million in investments in education, after weeks of mounting pressure and a petition.
Ortona said that the funding is conditional on many targets that include implementing hiring freezes and caps to staff – something he says could affect students even with some of the money being put back.
“We already staffed for next year and we did so in accordance with the collective agreements and the law that this government negotiated with the unions just last year,” said Ortona. “So to ask us now to scale that back is completely unreasonable, and they know that.”
But one of the biggest issues QESBA has with the current government is Quebec’s move to block boards from accessing their accumulated budget surpluses.
A legal challenge is being prepared and is expected to be filed before the school year begins.
“We’re hoping that we’re going to get courts to agree that all of this is unreasonable, unnecessary, unjustified, and to allow us to inject into education the money and the resources that we need,” said Ortona.
QESBA is calling on all partners in education, parents, and community members to stand united against these cuts.
“The future of our children and the strength of our democratic institutions depend on a robust, equitable, and properly funded public education system,” they said in the press release.
QESBA represents 100,000 students in 306 elementary, high schools, adult education and vocational centres across Quebec.
CityNews reached out to Quebec’s Education Ministry for comment but did not hear back yet. Meanwhile, in a statement posted on social media on July 16th Education Minister Bernard Drainville said that all funds from the government must be used strictly to quote “finance direct services to students, not for anything else.”
However, Steven Le Sueur, president of the union representing English school teachers, says that staffing cuts could still hurt student programs — even if the government insists otherwise.
“We’re going to have issues with our special needs and supporting those teachers with those special needs and at-risk kids, for sure,” said Le Sueur. “They’ve already cut 200 million and they’re still asking for more. It’s just going to get worse.”
Advocates warn that the cuts will affect the most vulnerable students in schools — children with special needs. They stress that reducing staff support will have a ripple effect on the entire classroom.
“When you have these aids in the classroom, they don’t only help special needs children, but also the entire class,” said Katherine Korakakis, president of the English Parents’ Committee Association of Quebec (EPCAQ). “Because if the aids are not there to help and to help alleviate some of the pressure with the students or help them stay on task or learn in the way that they learn, the teacher’s then attention is focused on one child.”
The legal challenge from QESBA is expected to be filed before the next school year begins.
“Everything has an impact, whether it be direct or indirect, or in the short term, or medium or long term,” said Ortona. “So we have to monitor the situation very closely.”
