‘A fight for all Quebec students’: EMSB joins legal challenge against province’s education cuts

The English Montreal School Board (EMSB) is joining a legal challenge against Quebec’s new education funding cuts.

The school board adopted a motion at a special board meeting Monday afternoon to join the Quebec English School Boards Association’s (QESBA) court battle.

All Quebec school boards that want to join the lawsuit will be holding similar meetings by Friday.

“Without a stay we would have to make harmful cuts that would have a detrimental impact on the future of the students, so we didn’t see any other choice,” said EMSB Chair Joe Ortona.

“They cut 200 million in education last year,” said Ortona. “As difficult as that was, we were able to manage. Then they announced the 570-million-dollar cuts in education for this year.”

In June, when unveiling his budget rules, Quebec Education Minister Bernard Drainville asked the province’s school service centres (CSS) to reduce their expenses by $570 million for the next year.

The EMSB says those budgetary measures requires it to cut $10.6 million from its 2025-26 budget, calling it an “unrealistic target.” The board also says it cannot access $7.8 million in accumulated surplus funds.

“People are outraged,” said Ortona. “I mean over 160,000 people signed a petition calling on the government to reverse these cuts.”

In jeopardy are music programs, arts programs, sports concentration programs, extracurricular activities, and breakfast programs, according to Ortona, who is also the president of QESBA.

“These cuts directly jeopardize the quality of education for our diverse student body,” he said. “This is a fight for all Quebec students. These budgetary rules threaten the heart of our education system — English and French alike. The government’s silence has left us no choice but to pursue legal action to protect our students’ future.”

The EMSB says its council of commissioners will mandate a law firm to “take necessary steps to contest these rules and seek a stay of their application, ensuring the protection of vital programs for students in both English and French education networks.”

After weeks of mounting pressure and a petition, the Legault government later announced an additional $540 million in investments in education. That money came with conditions, including that the funding must go towards student services, and must be accompanied by a reduction in the administrative expenses.

“What they did was they injected new money and then put a series of conditions on it, many of which we wouldn’t be able to meet,” said Ortona. “So, we’re getting the double whammy that we’re being imposed the cuts, we’re then being punished for the targets that we can’t meet and we can’t use our accumulated surplus. So, it’s actually a triple whammy that they’re imposing on us!”

These conditions stated that the funding must go towards student services, and must be accompanied by a reduction in the administrative expenses – and the budgetary measures require it to cut $10.6 million from its 2025-26 budget.

“These conditions violate our rights under Section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, denying us the ability to manage resources for our students,” said Ortona.

The board also says it cannot access $7.8 million in accumulated surplus funds – funds that they say could protect vital programs.

“There would be things that we would have to cut in terms of funding,” said Ortona. “Anything having to do with services that go above and beyond the bare minimum I think of support services for special needs students.”

Neither school boards nor service centres have adopted operating budgets ahead of next month’s return to classes, the EMSB says.

All Quebec school boards that want to join the lawsuit will be holding similar meetings by Friday.

“We remain, as always, open to dialogue, hoping to avoid litigation,” said Ortona. “Obviously, I urge the Council to adopt the resolution unanimously and to affirm our commitment to all Quebec students and our communities’ future.”