Cuts threaten sport and leisure access
Cuts by the CAQ are threatening to cut off access to sport and leisure facilities on evenings and weekends all over Montreal.
Later story: City access to school leisure facilities is likely to end by February 1st.
Nicholas 13:30 on 2025-01-21 Permalink
This is such typical government ridiculousness. There are three levels of government here, and none of them want to pay for the staff member to be on site, so these facilities will remain unused. Maybe the cost should be passed on to the kids, because we don’t value subsidizing these sports and leisure activities, and only the rich kids can afford it, but we’d probably pay for it in the end with increased health care costs. And, as usual, because there are so many levels of government involved, the public is unsure who to blame, so there’s no accountability.
Kate 14:27 on 2025-01-21 Permalink
I hadn’t linked to a story from a few days ago about how CAQ cuts are also closing CEGEP programs without much warning, but it seems to fit into the same frame.
Are we so hard up that we have to curtail education and physical training like this?
Joey 14:45 on 2025-01-21 Permalink
Given the apparent current-year budget crunch, and the fact that Quebec has lots of expertise redirecting federal money, I kind of wish the CAQ had temporarily raised the QST to capture the foregone revenue from the temporary GST cut. No individual would have been worse off than just prior to the tax holiday (which was so sudden that nobody was planning for it or saving up for a big purchase) and the province could have netted hundreds of millions of badly needed dollars. Instead we get death by a thousand paper cuts…
dwgs 15:09 on 2025-01-21 Permalink
Evenings and weekends would be when most people use sport and leisure facilities, no? So the staff will oversee empty rinks and gyms from 9 to 5 then go home like everyone else? SMDH
steph 15:42 on 2025-01-21 Permalink
Dumping students mid program might be grounds for a lawsuit. How many of those people have taken on debt, sacrificed working hours for “half a program” of completed courses – a worthless scatter of credits. I consider these cuts to education an unacceptable attack on our society.
nau 15:52 on 2025-01-21 Permalink
dwgs: It’s not quite that. These are school gyms that are used outside school hours for municipal programs.
Nicholas 22:46 on 2025-01-21 Permalink
steph, are there courses? The article made it seem like this was rec badminton and chess. Not that that isn’t bad to have it cut, but I don’t think there are credits here. And given the extension through Feb 1, they may have been able to finish all sessions.
dwgs, nay is correct. Most of these schools would have no staff on the weekends, and when they do it’s likely random days for a school event where gyms might be in use, not weekly.
jeather 07:48 on 2025-01-22 Permalink
The courses was related to a comment Kate made about suddenly cancelling cégep programs while students are partway through.
steph 09:02 on 2025-01-22 Permalink
Yes, my comment was about the cégep cuts. We should have a whole thread about this, it`s kind of a big deal.
Ian 12:31 on 2025-01-22 Permalink
Yeah Cont Ed AEC programs were a lifeline for a lot of people that just wanted retraining, to upgrade skills, didn’t have time for a DEC, wanted to get a certificate to gain entry to another program, etc. Entire programs have been cut, but also night classes have been cancelled at a lot of CEGEPs, cutting off working students form options in that regard, too.