MONTREAL – Quebec Education Minister Sébastien Proulx has announced a $367 million investment destined for school repairs.
It’s much needed money for some – especially Montreal’s biggest French board, the Commission Scolaire de Montréal, which insists it needs about $1.3 billion for repairs.
“We can’t tolerate schools that are in a state of disrepair or are closed, it’s unacceptable,” said Proulx.
“It’s why our government, in agreement with school boards, will multiply its efforts to prevent, detect and correct problems in learning centres.”
According to a spokesperson for the Education ministry, most of Montreal’s school infrastructure is over 50 years old.
Lester B. Pearson School Board Chairperson Suanne Stein Day told Global News the money will go to fixing windows, doors and replace bathrooms, as well as take care of mould and other general maintenance issues.
WATCH ABOVE: Global Montreal’s Senior Anchor Jamie Orchard speaks to Walter Duszara with the QCGN on why eight institutions that represent Anglophones in Quebec have sent an open letter to Premier Philippe Couillard asking for more funding for English schools.
The school boards apply for grants to get funding for infrastructure maintenance every fall.
Stein Day said the amount her board is receiving is about the same as last year’s grant.
Nevertheless, she is very happy about the news.
“Obviously we’re very pleased, this is an annual process, so we’ve been waiting to hear the final numbers,” she said.
“Each year in the fall, we prioritize our projects, we send them into the Ministry of Education and around this time of the year we get an answer so that we start planning.”
“A lot of the work is done over the summer, when children are not in the schools.”
Here is a breakdown of the investment:
School Boards | Investments | Number of projects |
CS de Montréal | $79.1 M | 118 |
CS de la Pointe-de-l’Île | $10.2 M | 36 |
CS Marguerite-Bourgeoys | $21.6 M | 92 |
CS English-Montréal | $9.1 M | 36 |
CS Lester-B.-Pearson | $7.2 M | 11 |
Comments