LaSalle College’s creditor protection has been extended until the end of January, with a penalty hearing set for the same month amid an ongoing multimillion-dollar dispute with the Quebec government over student enrolment caps in its English programs. The college announced the creditor protection extension and the penalty hearing set for Jan. 21 and 22 following Tuesday’s hearing. LaSalle College has been under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) since Aug. 24, after the Quebec government imposed a $30-million penalty for enrolling too many students in its English-language programs between 2023 and 2025. “For us, this is positive because the school can keep running as usual. Teachers and students are in class; we are preparing for the January intake, and everything is going smoothly,” the college’s president, Claude Marchand, told CTV News. “By Jan. 22, we will finally know what is happening with the $30 million penalty.” During the hearing, the court established a potential liability of up to $1.5 million for the college’s directors and officers. It additionally approved reimbursing certain student deposits before the legal proceedings began. “Our community has been under uncertainty for the last five years and, for us, we’re really keen to go and have that important meeting in Quebec to find a solution that would be the best outcome for our LaSalle College community,” Marchand said. The college typically receives $31 million in annual government grants. However, Marchand said the Quebec government had withheld the subsidies, delaying the start of the fall semester and affecting approximately 3,000 students. In a Sept. 3 ruling, the Quebec Superior Court ordered the government to pay the college’s subsidies for the 2026-2027 school year. However, Marchand said he wants to resolve the penalties imposed by the Quebec government for exceeding English-language enrolment caps. In July 2025, the college was accused of exceeding its allowed limit by 716 English-speaking students for the 2023-2024 academic year, and an additional 1,066 in 2024-2025. As a result, the Quebec Education Ministry sought to recover $8,781,740 in subsidies paid to the college for the 2023-2024 academic year and $21,113,864 for 2024-2025. In July 2025, Quebec’s Education Ministry told CTV News that LaSalle College was the only subsidized private college that continued to defy the French Language Charter and failed to comply with the law, despite close monitoring and several warnings. Marchand said he believes the college has been treated “very unfairly.” “It has been a great point of contention because they believe that we owe them $30 million, and we believe we owe them 0. Moreover, their penalties are threatening the viability of the institution that has served Quebec society so well since 1959 with over 60,000 graduates,” Marchand said. “But we never had a judgment, or we have never been in front of justice with this story. But finally, in January, we will be in front of a judge, and LaSalle College will accept whatever is decided by our justice system.” The Quebec government was granted permission to appeal the Sept. 3 order. However, the order remains in effect, and a hearing date for the appeal has not yet been set.
