English school boards threaten to sue Quebec over budget cuts in education network

The Quebec English School Boards Association is taking the province to court, arguing new funding restrictions violate a recent court ruling on Bill 40.

English school boards are threatening to sue the Quebec government over “astronomical” cuts to the education network that they argue are unconstitutional.

The controversial cuts were announced at the end of the school year when the Ministry of Education said it would have to slash spending by more than half a billion dollars by fall 2025.

English school boards and French-language service centres were asked to cut $510.8 million from the 2025-2026 fiscal year, and an additional $56.9 million from the private schools – for a total of $567.7 million.

The Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) intends to file the lawsuit in the coming weeks.

President Joe Ortona said one of the main sticking points is the government’s directive that bars the school boards from dipping into surplus money accumulated over the years to use as needed.

He said QESBA has made it clear that the government can’t micromanage how English school boards spend their money and doing so would be in breach of the Court of Appeal judgment on Bill 40 earlier this year.

“It’s been radio silence on their part, so they either don’t understand it or don’t care,” Ortona told CTV News.

“The government puts us in a position where we have no choice but to file a lawsuit because they think that they can run the education system in the English sector like it’s a service centre, and we are not service centres. We fought for the right to keep school boards and fought for the right to have local management and control. As long as the government doesn’t get that, it’s unfortunate, but court challenges are going to keep mounting.”

Following mounting pressure from opposition parties and unions about the cuts, Education Minister Bernard Drainville said that the province would invest “up to” $540 million for the school network and that all funds “must be used to finance direct services to students, not for anything else.” The announcement on July 16 did not mention whether or not the requested budget cuts still stand.

The funding is conditional on many unreachable targets, Ortona said, including caps on hiring, despite school boards having already made hiring decisions for the next school year “in conformity with the collective agreements that the government themselves negotiated with the union.”

“So the government’s turning around and saying, ‘You can’t hire the jobs that you guaranteed to hire. And by the way, if the unions grieve and sue the school boards, you’re left on your own to deal with that as well,’” he said.

Minister Drainville’s office did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.

Ortona could not say how many school boards are planning to join the proposed lawsuit as they are in the middle of reviewing how the budget cuts will affect them.