It is with mixed emotions that I am sharing with you this evening that the LBPSB will be presenting a balanced budget for adoption for the 2025-2026 school year. As you are likely well aware, finally reaching this point has been a turbulent exercise since the LBPSB, and all other school boards and centre de services scolaire in the Province of Quebec received the shocking news in June that unreasonable and unworkable budgetary rules were being imposed across the education system, just as most of us were preparing to present 2025-2026 budgets for adoption. When the LBPSB’s Director of Finance in collaboration with others in her department and ADG Stéphanie Stevers tallied the numbers attached to certain measures, recurring negative adjustments, and the inability to use our surplus, the outcome left us in dismay with the compression and cuts resulting in millions of dollars we would no longer be able to use. In Mid-July, however, the government reacted to outcry from all corners of Québec society who were appalled by the government’s 570 million dollar plus cut. The MEQ, oddly, not sheepishly, but almost proudly, reinserted approximately 450 million dollars back into the system … with strings or conditions attached. For weeks afterward there was confusion about how we at the LBPSB could or could not use some of the so-called new funding, right up until, quite frankly, about 10 days ago.

In reaction to the government’s unnecessary and unreasonable actions, the Quebec English School Boards Association, the QESBA made a decision to challenge the Quebec government’s budgetary rules and sought a stay of their application in September 2025. English school boards in Quebec, as minority language school boards in Canada, have Constitutional rights, under section 23, to manage and control the resources to fit our community’s needs. The LBPSB supported this court challenge.

Fast forward to October 24, 2025, the QESBA decided to withdraw its request for a stay of the application of the 2025-2026 budget rules, following a series of significant concessions from the MEQ regarding our ability to use our funds without the original strings attached. This provides relief for the time being, for staffing, student services and school board operations. It is truly unfortunate that proper consultation and discussion did not take place prior to imposing budget cuts in June so that the education network was not left in such a state of confusion and worry about financing our operations in the upcoming year. There is a sense of relief for us now, but this doesn’t mean we are happily moving forward.

The pressure from the Quebec English School Board Association, the DGs, the Directors of Finance, the ADGs, the outraged public whose petition against the cuts was phenomenal, as were all of the other actions and protests against these measures from all citizens, proves that we can collectively work together for significant change. This is reassuring. I cannot stress enough the deep appreciation and gratitude the Council of Commissioners has for the tireless, stressful, frustrated, yet always fully committed and dedicated work of the Finance team, the ADGs and DG, throughout this trying process in both their conversations with the MEQ and in their work toward balancing the budget.

The reality, though, is that education budgets, both operational and capital, are lacking in the necessary funds to do what we should truly be able to do to enrich, enhance, support, develop and build a strong education system for our students that is the best it can be. At the LBPSB we will do whatever we can to support our entire network, but we have to collectively appreciate that our means are lean, that we have made many adjustments across the system to balance our budget as is required by law. We are now in a position where we will have to do less, because we still have less funding to work with than in previous years. It is still the time to continue to advocate, challenge and fight for what will be the best possible outcome in the short term and long run for our students, and hope that the government understands that we are talking about the future Quebec, and to re-invest, significantly, more in education this year, and in the years to come, not less and less and less. We expect to be trusted and respected to do the work we need to do for all of our students and expect the MEQ and the Quebec government, for the sake of education, to invest wisely and generously at this critical time.