At their October 29 regular meeting, the commissioners at the Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board (SWLSB) adopted a balanced budget for the 2025–2026 school year.
This came in the context of $3.7 million in budget cuts, following new financial rules imposed by the Ministère de l’Éducation du Québec (MEQ) under Premier François Legault’s Coalition Avenir Québec government.
“The Council recognizes that adopting a balanced budget was not achieved without sacrifice,” the SWLSB said in a statement.
“This was a team effort,” said chairperson James Di Sano.
“Our goal is to minimize the impact on our students, staff, and schools/centres as much as possible. These are not easy times, but we are committed to making the best decisions possible in the circumstances.”
According to the SWLSB, the impacts of the new budgetary rules on students and staff could have been much greater.
However, with collaboration from the Quebec English School Boards Association and the nine QESBA school boards who brought a court challenge to stay the budgetary rules, “the government made significant adjustments both before and after the stay hearing that reduced impacts, and allowed English school boards to drop their request to immediately suspend the new rules,” the SWLSB said.
They said the court case challenging the budgetary rules is continuing to ensure that our students’ needs are considered in future budgetary decisions.”
The SWLSB said its budgeting process involved administrators, governing boards, the parents’ committee and the audit committee and was developed through a concerted consultation process “to ensure that decisions best reflect the needs and priorities of our schools and centres in the circumstances.”
“The SWLSB is aware that the cuts required to balance this budget will be felt in our schools,” they added.
“The Council remains committed to making the best fiscal decisions possible and to continuing to advocate for the needs of students, families and staff, even under these challenging conditions.”
