Outaouaois’ 60,000 students return to class while education leaders address challenges and celebrate successes 

Sophie Demers 

The directors of Outaouais four french school service centers as well as the Western Quebec School Board gathered on August 25 at École secondaire du Versant to address the media about the upcoming school year. 

With the provincial government cutting the budget earlier this year, then giving some of the budget back, there have been many changes and work being done over the last few months to prepare for back-to-school. 

The student population keeps growing and the budgets are smaller. Throughout the press conference each school representative echoed the messages that they are working together to find the best practices and optimize their budgets to provide the best education to students as possible. 

In the region 60,000 students will be welcomed back to school this fall across over 150 education institutions. Daily, nearly 50,000 km is traveled by school buses and combined the budget for education is over 1 billion dollars. 

“It is a message that we want to send not only to the population but also to the members of our staff about the importance of collaborating, not being in competition, but really using everyone's strengths to be able to help each other. This is what we have been embodying for a few years and we want to continue to do so,” said Manon Dufour, Director of the Centre de services scolaire des Draveurs. Dufour also highlighted that the high school success rate is at 80% in the region. 

“The administrative and management costs of our services centers and the School Commission all together are below 5%. This makes us among the best public and non-public organizations in terms of administrative management. It is difficult to find lower than the administrative costs that we are able to deploy and put in place,” said Daniel Bellemare, director of Commission scolaire au Cœur-des-Vallées. 

“The challenges are large but know that we are working together with my colleagues to improve the future of students regardless of their language.  Our commitment remains clear to provide each student with the best possible environment to succeed,” said George Signfield, Western Quebec School Board (WQSB) director. 

Outaouais English school boards continue to fight for their rights

Later that day, the WQSB held a meeting later that day to adopt their 2025-2026 budget. The decision was made to postpone the adoption of the budget until September 23. 

Earlier in the month, the WQBS voted to join a court challenge of the provincial government rules regarding the budget. The court challenge is being issued by the Quebec English School Board Association, and its nine members across Quebec. 

The provincial government instated a rule that barred the school boards from using their surplus which in years past acted as a cushion when there was a deficit in the budget due to cuts. THe WQSB has approximately $15 million in their surplus account. 

“We have the right of control and management of our funds. We're not contesting the budget cuts. We understand we have to tighten our belts. There's less money in the pot but we believe as minority language right holders that we have the right. To decide how we're going to spend that money including our surplus,” said Labadie highlighting that under Section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, minority-language communities have the right to manage their educational institutions as well as their budgets.

The proposed 2025-2026 WQSB budget of nearly $154 million has a deficit of just over $380,000. The vote to postpone the adoption of the budget was done to see if the court will give them a stay meaning that the controversial surplus rule would not apply until a court decision has been made. 

Labadie says the delayed budget means the school board only has access to a 1/12 of their budget. She says that it covers the bills and salaries but if any unplanned expenses arise, they cannot access more funds.