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Montreal Gazette
21-07-2025
- Politics
- Montreal Gazette
Hanes: Respect is a one-way street for Education minister
By Education Minister Bernard Drainville has been on a mission lately to instil civility in Quebec's classrooms. Starting this fall, students will be obligated to use the formal 'vous' to address adults at school, while smartphones will be banned outright to eliminate distractions. Despite these efforts to command respect from young people toward their teachers, he's failed to show much of it himself. In fact, Drainville's latest manoeuvres show outright contempt toward those running and working in Quebec's public school system, in both word and deed. Deep cuts to education were announced on the cusp of the summer holidays, catching administrators off guard. About $570 million was slashed after plans for the coming year were already set in motion, sending educators scrambling to review staffing and squeeze resources before classes resume in the fall. The last-minute timing of the reductions was disrespectful to begin with, but their scope was the real blow. Outraged teachers, union leaders and parents warned crucial services would be lost and the most vulnerable students would suffer. If Drainville was hoping the umbrage would die down over the summer, he was wrong. More than 157,000 Quebecers signed a petition spearheaded by Parti Québecois education critic Pascal Bérubé. And many took to the streets in protest. Drainville's initial response to widespread concern was to insist the government wasn't actually cutting the education budget, but rather limiting projected increases after years of budget growth. While technically true (education spending has been rising by about 7 per cent annually in recent years and the government belatedly decided to keep it to 2 per cent), the effects would, nevertheless, be devastating. Schools would have to lay off staff, shelve tutoring sessions, cancel lunch programs, or reduce pedagogical supports for the students who need it most. Attempts to dismiss the alarm came off as gaslighting. But it's when the government reversed most of the cuts that the real disdain emerged. Last week, Drainville came up with a 'new envelope' of $540 million to offset the previously announced budget compressions. But rather than just retracting what was previously announced, he attached strings to the money and lectured administrators about fiscal responsibility. 'Let's be clear: this is not an open bar,' the minister warned in a Facebook post. 'Accountability will be required.' To access some of the funding, each English school board and French service centre will have to jump through hoops. 'Of the $540 million announced today, $425 million will be in a dedicated envelope,' Drainville said. 'In order to access it, each CSS should demonstrate they've made efforts to diminish their administrative expenses and commit to using the money solely for student services.' The minister didn't bother to offer any examples of what 'administrative expenses' service centres and school boards are supposedly wasting money on. Instead, he made it sound as they were planning to throw parties with public funds. In reality, most principals, teachers, classroom aides, behavioural specialists, psychologists and speech pathologists probably buy supplies or snacks for their classrooms out of their own pockets. The 'open bar' remark was gratuitous. Worse, is Drainville's comments suggest he doesn't get these dedicated professionals are the ones who provide the services to students he has suddenly realized are so critical. This, after all, is what the entire education sector was trying to tell him when he announced the budget cuts at the start of the summer. Now, after weeks of 'consultation' (more like backlash) 'he's heard the worries and the needs.' It's as if he's throwing warnings back in educators' faces. He could have just stuck with 'You spoke and we heard you.' Drainville could have used the recent financial results showing Quebec went $3-billion less in the red last year than previously projected to justify a political climbdown, but he went with arrogance and haughtiness. 'We're choosing education, we're choosing students — without sacrificing sound management,' he declared, once again getting a dig in at school staff. Education budgets have been climbing since the Coalition Avenir Québec was elected in 2018 — 55 per cent, in fact. But that was after a period of Liberal austerity. And after many of the province's teachers went on strike in late 2023 to demand support so they can help their students learn. Education should be spared from belt-tightening as much as possible. It's an investment in the next generation. This one-step-forward-two-steps-back routine of adding money and then taking it away, then putting it back again is more than short-sighted. It's destabilizing for public schools. Hiring and then letting support staff go only exacerbates the teacher shortage. Premier François Legault has repeatedly claimed education is one of his priorities. But his government doesn't always act like it and his Education minister sure doesn't sound like it. When asked in 2023 why elected Members of the National Assembly deserved a 30-per-cent pay hike, but not teachers, he responded snarkily: 'Are you really comparing the job of being a teacher to being an MNA?' There's nothing wrong with schools establishing expectations for respect, but it should start with the Education minister.
Montreal Gazette
17-07-2025
- Business
- Montreal Gazette
Opinion: A welfare state Quebecers cannot afford
School boards, teachers and parents reacted with fury when François Legault's government announced last month it was cutting $570 million from the province's current-year education budget. Services to students, they argued, would inevitably suffer. The cutbacks having been announced without warning, the anger was understandable — and the government took note. On Wednesday, the Education Ministry responded by promising up to $540 million toward student services. 'We have listened to the concerns and needs,' Education Minister Bernard Drainville posted on X. 'Today, we act.' However, Quebecers would do well to get used to more financial restrictions: the province's fiscal situation is dire, and at this stage, there is no other choice but to slow the rise in expenditures, especially for the two largest parts of the budget by far — health care (44 per cent) and education (15 per cent). The effect of Drainville's olive branch remains to be seen. But several school boards had already announced layoffs of much-needed support staff, notably remedial teachers and speech therapists. Extracurricular activities have also been cancelled. A petition to the National Assembly demanding that last month's spending cuts be reversed gathered more than 150,000 signatures in two weeks. The government argues that, in fact, spending on education this year will be five per cent higher than in 2024-2025. This is true only according to clever calculations by Finance Ministry officials. If you compare the moneys actually spent last year to the amounts planned for this year, the increase is only 2.1 per cent. This is much less than what is needed to compensate for inflation and the generous pay increases negotiated with the teachers' unions. Consequently, school boards have no choice but to cut somewhere. The Coalition Avenir Québec government argues that since it was first elected in 2018, it has increased the education budget by 55 per cent. Exactly! Therein lies the problem: in education as in other fields, the province's expenditures have risen much too fast, so that the deficit is projected to reach a whopping $13.6 billion in 2025-2026. This has led Standard & Poor's to downgrade Quebec's credit rating, citing 'a confluence of factors including slowing population growth, higher remuneration spending, and lower revenues' that will produce 'persistent operating deficits and large after-capital deficits — even before heightened economic uncertainty related to tariffs.' The future is bleak, to say the least. Last spring, Finance Minister Eric Girard introduced a five-year plan to balance the budget. The strategy requires a drastic slowdown in expenditure increases. Even so, the government will have to find a yet unidentified $6 billion in expenditure cuts or additional revenues to reach its objective. In an editorial published this month, the Wall Street Journal noted that 'the crisis of the welfare state — fiscally unaffordable but politically unreformable — afflicts nearly every 21st century Western democracy.' This is certainly the case of Quebec, where the welfare state has become larger than in any other jurisdiction in North America. Of course, this is a policy choice Quebecers have made beginning with the Quiet Revolution in the 1960s: carry a heavier tax burden in order to benefit from more generous public services. Unfortunately, those services have become grossly inefficient while requiring ever increasing amounts of money — money the province simply does not have. That being the case, expect budget cuts like those announced in the education sector to be just the beginning. Such restrictions contribute to the current dissatisfaction toward the Legault government — and deservedly so, considering that the CAQ inherited a significant surplus and transformed it into a gaping deficit. However, even if the October 2026 elections were to deliver a new government, Quebecers will face the same intractable problem that for years they have sought to avoid: How to preserve the large welfare state they hold so dear if they cannot afford it?
CBC
16-07-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Quebec adds $540M to education budget after facing criticism from school boards, staff
The Quebec government is adding hundreds of millions of dollars to the education budget for the upcoming school year after coming under fire for announcing cuts that would have amounted to $570 million less in funding. The sum of money announced on Wednesday amounts to $540 million. When announcing the budgetary restrictions last month, Education Minister Bernard Drainville said it was up to school service centres and school boards to respect the budgets they were given. Since then, teachers, parents, unions, school staff and school boards have heavily criticized those budgetary restrictions, arguing that student success and services would be affected. Across the province, there were protests and news conferences to draw attention to their concerns. A petition launched on the National Assembly website to oppose these budget cuts, sponsored by Parti Québécois (PQ) MNA Pascal Bérubé, has already gathered over 157,000 signatures. In a statement on Wednesday, Drainville said the government had listened to people's concerns and was taking action for students. But the funding comes with conditions. "All the money invested must be used for direct student services, not for anything else. Let's be clear: this is not an open bar," read Drainville's statement. "Of the $540 million announced today, $425 million will be paid into a dedicated envelope. To qualify, each [service centre] will have to demonstrate that it has made efforts to reduce its administrative expenses."
Montreal Gazette
12-07-2025
- General
- Montreal Gazette
Freed: Adult phone-a-holics need a law to protect us, too
I was waiting for my tennis partner at a west-end park last week, so I pulled out my phone to catch up on the newest news. But a well-dressed 50-something man on the next bench said sternly: 'Sorry, no phones in the park. Show some courtesy, please.' 'Huh,' I said with surprise, as nowadays that's practically like asking someone not to breathe. 'No phones in the park,' he repeated. 'It's a park tradition. Phones are anti-social. Courtesy, please.' Looking at his fixed gaze, I knew I had two choices: walk away to use my phone elsewhere, or engage with him. So I engaged, saying: 'You know, I've sat here for years beside dozens of people and no one's ever mentioned that, uh, park 'tradition.' You must be an unusual person.' 'Indeed, I am,' he said. Then we had an engaging 15-minute chat about phones, courtesy, tennis and life. Our conversation proved his point, because we wound up being more social than if I'd stuck to my phone. But the fact his initial demand startled me shows how far we've come in our addiction to the tiny know-it-alls in our pockets. Just 10 years ago, I would tell our son how rude it was to look at a phone when others were talking. But now that's just how most people act, typing while talking to you and murmuring: 'Sorry. I'm just texting back my grandson' (or accountant or masseur or cat). We are in an abusive relationship with a six-inch glass and metal rectangle that buzzes us all day. Quebec just adopted regulations banning phones in schools because kids are watching their phones, not their profs. 'When there are no cellphones, young people talk,' said Quebec Education Minister Bernard Drainville. Let's hope the law helps the young, but what about us adults? We, too, are phone-a-holics who need a law to protect us — from ourselves. The average person now spends 88 days a year on the phone; that's nine years of our lives staring at a small screen, let alone a big one. We're living through a phonedemic. We all know our phones are making us less social, sleepier, dumber and lonelier, according to countless studies. But we cling to them obsessively because they are amazing magic wands that constantly entertain and distract us. Stand by a bus stop, supermarket line or even a busy red light and everyone's looking down, not at the traffic. People walk into revolving doors or other people while reading Instagram posts on mindfulness. Bored during a highrise elevator ride, we refresh our messages 11 times, because who knows what may have happened between floors? We're all on message alert like surgeons on call, although our most urgent text will be 'get some milk.' Many people now sleep with their phones. Some probably get buried with them in case they get calls in the afterlife. It's a particularly noticeable problem for many phone-addicted teens who get more lonely the more online friends they have. It's easy not to chat with others at gatherings (or in a park) when you can always chat on social media or text/emoji the person three seats down. It's easier not to engage when you look totally absorbed in your screen, like you're receiving urgent messages from the prime minister. Yet studies show people are less social and more lonely since the spread of social media. The information age is also the isolation age. I always compare cellphone addiction to cigarettes in their heyday. Like people did with cigarettes, we take our phones out any time we're anxious, bored, fidgety or just crave a hit. In restaurants we lay them conveniently on the table like people did their cigarette packs, when you could still smoke in restaurants. Like cigarette companies, phone companies target the young and addict them for life. But instead of nicotine addiction, we're addicted to the dopamine of each ding! After sex, I'll bet way more people reach for cellphones than cigarettes. Obviously, cigarettes are far more deadly than phones, with few pluses. I can't recall any cigarette pack that had a portable flashlight, GPS, music app, heart-rate monitor and the World Wide Web. But phones are far more distracting and disabling than cigarettes ever were. The irony is phones let us connect with the whole planet. But many people are losing their connections with other people. Lately, some are trying to break up with their phones, or at least cool the toxic part of the relationship. There are countless apps that let us monitor our screen time and buzz us when we're OD-ing. But that often means looking at your phone by taking it out of your pocket and diving in again. I suspect that 20 years from now we may look back at this phonedemic era like we do the cigarette's heyday, surprised we allowed something so mentally harmful to seem so utterly pleasurable. By then, there may be lots more people like my park guy saying 'no phones, courtesy, please' than people like me staring at them. Until then, it has been nice talking, but my phone is buzzing. It must be the prime minister.
CTV News
03-07-2025
- Politics
- CTV News
School officials question Quebec's new cellphone ban and civility code
Quebec Education Minister Bernard Drainville responds to the Opposition during question period at the legislature in Quebec City, Oct. 22, 2024. (The Canadian Press/Jacques Boissinot) The Quebec Ministry of Education has released its draft regulation outlining a complete ban on cellphones in schools, along with new civility rules for the province. In May, the government announced it would expand its cellphone ban by prohibiting students in elementary and high school from using their devices anywhere on school property. In addition to the ban, Education Minister Bernard Drainville also said students would have to follow a civility code and address teachers formally as 'sir and madame.' However, some education officials say that enforcement will be difficult amid budget cuts and believe the government should be focusing on more urgent matters. Joe Ortona, president of the Quebec English School Boards Association, questioned whether enforcement would lead to staff 'shortfalls.' 'With all due respect to the minister, his priority shouldn't be on ensuring that these rules get enforced. It should be on ensuring that we have adequate staff,' Ortona argued in a recent interview. 'Rome is burning, and the minister is coming out with rules about proper etiquette and formal ways to address people and a cell phone ban while we're dealing with hundreds of millions of dollars of cuts and what exactly that's going to entail.' According to the draft regulation, there are a few exceptions to the ban, including health reasons, special needs and for pedagogical use. Moreover, each school will have to decide what disciplinary measures to implement for students who contravene the new rules. Katherine Korakakis, the president of the English Parents' Committee Association of Quebec, said that the harmful effects of cellphones do need to be mitigated, but raised doubts about whether the ban is the right measure. 'From parents, what we've heard and what we've always advocated is taking away the cell phones without teaching children about the effects of sound cell phones becomes a punitive measure and doesn't do anything to address the crisis,' Korakakis explained. 'So now you're putting something in place that is not enforceable. There are not enough teachers on hand. There are not enough staff members on hand.' The ban was recommended by a committee of legislature members tasked with studying the impact of screen time and social media on youth. In an interim report published in April, the committee found that mobile devices were everywhere on school grounds, and it heard from specialists who said extending the ban could reduce students' screen time and encourage other activities, such as socializing. Korakakis added that parents have expressed concern about not being able to reach their children. 'We raised this with the ministry and explained that, for the English-speaking community, there are real concerns — like not being able to reach your child, especially for students with special needs who take public transit. The ministry told us that as long as phones are kept in lockers, it's not a problem. But they were already in lockers to begin with,' she said. The new rules come into effect in the fall. With files from The Canadian Press
