Petition asking Quebec to reconsider funding Dawson expansion presented at National Assembly

Members of the Dawson Student Union were in Quebec City Wednesday to present a petition demanding the François Legault government reverse its decision not to allocate $180 million to the expansion of Dawson College.

The petition garnered about 20,000 signatures.

“We’re here to show that Dawson’s students are engaged, we are ambitious, we are the future of this province and in particular in the sector of health care,” Dawson Student Union President Alexandrah Cardona told the National Assembly.

“And it’s important that Dawson students’ voices are heard directly here in the National Assembly and across the province. We want the province to know that we’re Quebecers too,” she added, speaking English and French.

Quebec decided the funds previously earmarked for Dawson would be better spent on the province’s French-language CEGEPs.

That decision sparked dismay in the anglophone community and accusations the CAQ government wants to shore up its nationalist base ahead of this year’s election.

The Dawson expansion would have created more than 11,000 square metres of space to house a community clinic and all seven of the CEGEP’s health-care programs.

School officials say the campus has lacked adequate space for 20 years.

“The petition is a message, it’s not the be all end all,” said Cardonah. “And in fact the student union’s mobilizations and initiatives don’t end at a visit to the National Assembly. They don’t end when the petition closes. We will continue to mobilize if the project is not restored to the project it was for many years.”

READ MORE:

• Thousands sign petition asking Quebec to reconsider funding Dawson College expansion
• Budget or language? Quebec’s English community upset by Dawson College funding cuts
• Petition asks Quebec to reverse decision not to fund Dawson College expansion
• Dawson College asks to be treated equitably by government

Dominique Anglade, leader of the Quebec Liberals, says the CAQ’s decision reversal is political.

“There was a deficit of space for the CEGEP and it was part of the government’s priority, the CAQ government’s priority, in the last three years, the last four years,” said Anglade. “And all of a sudden in January, for political reasons, they decided not to go ahead for that, impacting the quality of education that they have at the CEGEP and sending a message to all people across, to all English-speaking CEGEPs, the priority is not going to be a priority to them. And it’s a matter of equity.”

Westmount Liberal MNA Jennifer Maccarone presented the petition on behalf of the students at the National Assembly on Wednesday.

“These students are not different because they study at Dawson,” said Maccarone. “They deserve the same consideration on top of the fact that the expansion project is one that was specifically to treat our health-care program, so would graduate health-care professionals into a very fragile network that requires these qualifications and these students.”

Dawson’s administration says it’s tried for weeks to meet with the CAQ government to no avail.