Quebec City, January 18, 2023 – The Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) is pleased with the pre-budget consultation held yesterday in Quebec City by the Finance Minister and Minister responsible for Relations with English-speaking Quebecers, Éric Girard.
QESBA has been advocating being involved in the pre-budget consultations for years through successive governments. This Minister went further by inviting leaders of many English community groups across Quebec to the consultation.
The QESBA called for increases in the financing of the education sector in order to improve the quality of education offered all Québec students and to improve outcomes.
“The Minister was clearly in a listening mode and understood the many budgetary issues surrounding the minority Education community. The size of our school board territories and extra costs that go into transportation for example must be taken into account when developing the education envelope,” said QESBA Executive Director Russell Copeman.
“We also must take into account inflation that is affecting all sectors in Québec, including construction and renovation costs. Overall system costs have increased significantly over the last few years and our system needs to be financed equitably” continued the Executive Director.
“Finally, we wanted the Minister to understand that the implementation of Bill 96 may well have an impact on how English school boards prepare our students to meet the new French requirements at Cégep,” concluded the Executive Director.
QESBA is the voice of English public education in Québec and represents 100,000 students in over 300 elementary, high schools, and adult and vocational centres across Québec.