Loyola High School is giving up its provincial subsidy to maintain its Jesuit, Catholic mission, saying that Quebec’s secular law requires it to comply with its rules or forgo the funding, the school announced Friday. Bill 9 expands and strengthens Quebec’s secularism rules across publicly funded sectors and public spaces and was passed into law in April. On Sept. 1, key rules from Bill 9 took effect, including a ban on individual and collective prayer and other religious practices in public agencies. “For 130 years, Loyola has formed young people in mind, heart, and spirit as lived daily in our classrooms, our chapel, our fields, and our service to others. That is what this decision protects,” the subsidized Roman Catholic private school in the Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough wrote in a statement. “Under the new law, keeping the subsidy would require Loyola to change important aspects of how we live our Jesuit, Catholic mission. After careful discernment, we concluded that we cannot make those changes and remain faithful to who we are.” The school created a committee to study the potential impacts of the bill and how the school should respond when it was first introduced in November 2025. In April, the school also surveyed 1,500 community members for their input and commissioned an independent financial study. “And through it all, you told us two things above all: protect the mission and keep Loyola financially accessible,” the school said. The provisions of Bill 9 that affect subsidies take effect in 2029. According to the school, government funding currently covers a large share of its operating costs. Forgoing the subsidy will create a gap of roughly $7,500 per student each year, the school said. Total fees would rise from approximately $12,530 to nearly $21,000. But the school says that as it transitions to a financially independent school, it aims to grow its financial resources to ensure it can continue to serve families. It announced that it is launching a major capital campaign to grow its endowment. “Philanthropy will matter more than it ever has. What we promise is that there will be no surprises: each year’s tuition and fees will be communicated to families well in advance, and every significant step of the transition will be shared with you openly,” the school said.
