January 17, 2023
THE ENGLISH SCHOOL NETWORK
- 9 English school boards and the CSS du Littoral, a special status school service centre
- Roughly 100,00 students in 330 schools and centres in every administrative region with the exception of the Grand Nord
- Over 21,000 employees
- Student success rate is 86%, consistently higher than the Québec average
BUDGET ISSUES
General, system-wide comments
- Appropriate Increase in the expenditure budget of the MEQ
- System costs must reflect the increase in inflation and the additional costs related to collective agreements
- Vocational education specifically has not been increased since 2015
- Transport envelops needs to be increased
- Attracting teachers and teacher retention must be a government priority with significant investment in promotion and added incentives province-wide
- Contract limits for building improvements and new construction
- The government must consider the current inflation reality in general and in the construction industry in particular when authorizing projects
POINTS SPECIFIC TO THE ENGLISH NETWORK
- Special additional envelop for French instruction in the English sector should be considered. Many boards have amazing programs while other boards have limited funds to develop proper immersion, bilingual or Français+ instruction
- Especially true given the new additional requirements for French courses at English-language CEGEPs
- Funding for transport needs to reflect the fact that in the English network, our school boards cover much larger territories with longer routes than most school service centres
- Funding for school board elections (which are maintained in a different form in Bill 40) is necessary
- French sector no longer has to organize school elections but their budgets were never reduced
- Question of equity
CANADA-QUEBEC ENTENTE ON MINORITY LANGUAGE EDUCATION AND SECOND LANGUAGE INSTRUCTION
- This agreement functions more like an equalization program to the Government of Québec rather than a genuine support program for English language education
- The English education network needs to receive a greater proportion of the funds transferred to Québec
- Only 20% of the $65M transferred annually from the Government of Canada to the Government of Quebec goes to the MEQ to support English educational network
- School boards allocate only $1.5 million in total for special projects
- 59% goes to the Treasury Board
- In most other provinces, roughly 80% goes to the departments of education
- Expand the possibility for the English education sector to develop projects specific to the English network
BILL 96
- Importance of consultations on the implementing regulations
- Usual process of 45 day comment period once published in the Gazette officielle not sufficient
- If “nothing in Bill 96 infringes on the rights of English-speaking Quebecers” then why did your government invoke the two notwithstanding clauses pre-emptively
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