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In Canada, the Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ) and its federations in the college system are denouncing cuts of 150 million Canadian dollars (around 96 million euros) by 2025-2026 and are calling on Premier François Legault to restore funding for the CEGEPs, the public education institutions where the first level of higher education is taught.

“Time and again, Premier Legault has said that he would make education his priority. I am calling directly on François Legault, the leader of this government, to honour his commitment. He must backtrack on this decision that has catastrophic consequences for the college system! I urge him to draw on his reserve of courage,” stated Éric Gingras, president of the CSQ, an affiliate of Education International.

Tax cuts with negative repercussions on Quebec’s credit rating

Following the presentation of Quebec’s latest budget, the credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s announced that it was lowering Quebec’s rating.

“The cuts announced today are at least partly down to the Quebec government’s deliberate decision to lower taxes before the last election. It is entirely responsible for its own misfortune, and that of college staff and students! Nothing that is happening today could not have been avoided or is inevitable. Investing in the CEGEPs is more essential than ever,” Gingras added.

Standard & Poor also pointed out that tax cuts had contributed to the downgrade.

Cuts to education, a “senseless” act

While the increase in operating subsidies for the college system for 2025-2026 will be reduced to just 0.3%, the CSQ and its college system federations point out that the amounts initially budgeted did not adequately address the increase in system costs. The 2.1% increase in the budget of the Ministry of Higher Education was in fact below the projected increase in payroll costs, which account for over 50% of the budget, and was below the inflation rate of 2.3%.

“At 0.3%, CEGEP funding is melting away, and student services with it! Instead of making cuts, the government should have reinvested, to account for the projected increase in student numbers throughout the college system. We’re talking of no less than 14.4% by 2032. Yet the government is clipping our wings and preventing us from offering them services in line with what they rightfully expect. This is bound to have a dramatic impact on staff, particularly support staff and the professionals who are likely to be hit hard by these cuts. In a context of staff shortages, how the government can possibly think that cutting system costs funding will not impact day-to-day operations and the quality of services to students is senseless,” added Valérie Fontaine, president of the Fédération du personnel de soutien de l’enseignement supérieur (FPSES-CSQ), Youri Blanchet, president of the Fédération de l’enseignement collégial (FEC-CSQ), and Éric Cyr, president of the Fédération du personnel professionnel des collèges (FPPC-CSQ), in a joint statement.

Unions mobilising to improve their members’ working conditions

“At a time when support staff are already suffering from excessive workloads, which have been exacerbated by the government’s hiring freeze, we have been told that this is not the year that we’ll manage to get our heads above water. The coming years are going to be tough, as we already warned, but instead of listening to us, the government is doing exactly the opposite. All these cutbacks make no sense when an increase in student numbers has been forecast for several years now. Our members are committed to our students’ success and are working to provide them with a healthy, stimulating and safe learning environment. Every person counts, and the jobs being cut were essential to keeping everything running smoothly. Our ability to organise as a union will also be affected. It’s hard to get time off to look after union business when there’s no one left in our department but us. The entire community comes out losing as a result of these irrational decisions,” says Valérie Fontaine.

“The CEGEP system is being hit by a raft of budget cuts: a freeze on the hiring of administrative staff, a cap on paid hours, cuts in the provision of credited adult education, building maintenance, international hiring measures, equipment purchases and college research grants, to name but a few. Every month, the CEGEPs lose professional staff that they cannot replace. This situation is leading to a reduction in success support services, psychosocial assistance and professional support of all kinds. It is also leading to an increase in the workload for our members, who are more likely to be absent or even leave their jobs. The consequences will be far-reaching for the college system as a whole and for the society of tomorrow in Quebec, because this decline in services will be detrimental to success rates, student retention and graduation,” explains Éric Cyr.

For Cyr, “It is beyond disheartening to see the way the Quebec government is mistreating the college system, the jewel of higher education and, what’s more, one of a kind, internationally. The repeated budget cuts and restrictions of the past year are undermining the very existence of this education system, which offers quality technical and pre-university training throughout Quebec, promoting access not only to education but also to culture for the population as a whole.”

“While year after year our members invest their energies in putting in place activities and strategies to promote success, the instability of funding is both counter-productive and demoralising. That’s another reason why we’re holding our conference this year on the inspirational theme of Putting the Heart Back into Knowledge. But to achieve this, the resources have to be in place, not cut from CEGEP budgets!” adds Youri Blanchet.

Go Public! Fund Education

The demands made by Quebec’s education trade unionists are consistent with Education International’s Go Public! Fund Education campaign. This campaign is an urgent appeal to governments to invest in public education, a fundamental human right and a public good, and to invest more in teachers, the single most important factor in achieving quality education.

“When cuts are made in the college sector, it’s not jobs that disappear, it’s support services, education activities, psychosocial support, promising projects and teams already hard hit by the lack of resources. It’s young people receiving less than they are entitled to. This attack on our college system is not isolated, it reflects a reductionist vision of public services that can unfortunately be seen just about everywhere in the world. Through the Go Public! Fund Education campaign, we are rising up together to remind everyone that education cannot be sacrificed. Reinvesting in our CEGEPs means investing in the success and future of Quebec,” says Marjolaine Perreault, Director General of the CSQ and a member of Education International’s Executive Board.