Quebec’s school boards and service centers will now have the opportunity to recruit additional staff for their institutions, provided that their salaries remain within the budget allocated by the province.
In a message posted on the social media platform X, Education Minister Sonia LeBel announced that she is granting school service centers greater autonomy in managing their budgets.
“Targets remain targets. They are a crucial metric for monitoring the budget,” LeBel stated. “However, we want to amend the regulations to enable school service centers to allocate their resources effectively without compromising student services.”
Her predecessor, Bernard Drainville, had previously set restrictions on the hiring of new staff in schools as a prerequisite for accessing part of an extra $540 million in funding, which was introduced after widespread protests regarding budget constraints in the education sector.
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Although LeBel is not officially altering any regulations established by her predecessor, she hopes that the targets can serve more as guidance for school boards and service centers to adhere to their budgets, rather than imposing a strict limit on the number of staff they can employ.
“I’m not removing anything,” LeBel emphasized as she entered a caucus meeting on Wednesday morning. “Full-time equivalents are a key indicator of [an organization] that will adhere to their budget, given that 80 percent of the education budget consists of salaries.”
LeBel mentioned that she is collaborating with school service centers to explore potential modifications to the regulations related to full-time equivalent thresholds.
Some school boards and service centers have held off on replacing teachers who are on maternity or sick leave due to the existing restrictions.
Both the Quebec English School Boards Association and the federation representing the school service centers, the Fédération des centres de services scolaires du Québec, have chosen not to comment, as they await further confirmation and clarification from the minister.
The federation indicated that it remains unclear what this development means for the hiring practices of school service centers.
Hiring freeze in 2024 ‘catastrophic’
Teacher unions have criticized the hiring freezes, asserting that even with the availability of extra funding, the lack of personnel has already adversely affected student services.
For example, in some schools, extra-curricular activities and field trips for students have faced limitations.
In a statement, the Fédération des employées et employés de services publics union noted that LeBel’s recent announcement should provide schools with much-needed flexibility to hire staff.
“However, the [Coalition Avenir Québec] should not expect us to [celebrate] their resolution of problems they themselves created,” said the union’s president, Frédéric Brun.
“Since the announcement of a hiring freeze in 2024, we warned that it would be disastrous for the system.”
Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, education critic for Québec Solidaire, also views this announcement as a positive advancement.
“The next [step] would be to remove all those unreasonable conditions,” he remarked.
To access the additional education funds, school boards and service centers were also required to streamline some of their administrative services.
