The condition of the CEGEPs is rapidly deteriorating, to the point where a growing number of buildings are threatened with closure due to a lack of funding for their maintenance and Quebec’s poor management of these funds, notes Quebec’s Auditor General (VG) in a report tabled in the National Assembly on Thursday morning.
In just three years, Quebec’s university network has seen its financial needs for building maintenance double, to $700.5 million. Only 35% of buildings in the Québec university network are now considered to be in a satisfactory condition, while 65% of buildings in this network are “in poor condition,” the VG, Guylaine Leclerc, underlines in his report. CEGEPs across Quebec are faced with leaking roofs, poorly insulated windows and mold problems, among other problems.
Despite these glaring needs, the funding intended for the maintenance and upgrade of the 899 buildings in Quebec’s university network is insufficient, M notes.me Leclerc. “Indeed, from 2023-2024 to 2027-2028, $608.6 million is planned for asset maintenance, while $1.7 billion would be needed,” she notes in her report.
The process Quebec has set up to select maintenance projects submitted by CEGEPs that will be entitled to state funding is also “lengthy and ineffective.” A situation that could have concrete consequences for the ability of several CEGEPs to use some of their buildings.
“We know that our CEGEPs are about 60 years old, so it is certain that when urgent situations need to be addressed, closures can occur,” Thursday M noted.me Leclerc during a press conference in the National Assembly. She then gave the example of the Cégep de La Pocatière, which had to close its swimming pool and one of its student residences last year due to aging, and failed to secure the financing necessary to ensure adequate maintenance.
The VG report also describes in detail the domino effect that a lack of investment in the maintenance of the college network threatens to cause in the coming years. “The more the condition of buildings deteriorates, the greater the risk of a failure leading to performance degradation or the discontinuation of services. In addition, there is a risk that a defect that is not remedied in a timely manner will cause others and require much more extensive work. For example, a leaking roof can ultimately damage walls and floors. After a certain threshold of degradation, the building sometimes needs to be rebuilt rather than repaired,” the document continues.
The number of buildings in the college network that have to close due to aging could therefore increase in the coming years, M suggested.me Leclerc. “I’m not a fortune teller, but the numbers speak,” she says in response to a question from Task.
“It’s simple: there is not enough money” for the maintenance of CEGEPs, the president and CEO of the Fédération des CEGEPs, Bernard Tremblay, also noted in an interview. The latter also shares the VG’s view that Quebec’s approval process for building maintenance projects is “too cumbersome”, in a context where every additional delay increases the bill due to the rapid increase in construction costs in the province. “We all have to agree on the idea of simplifying things,” he said.
‘Is there a pilot on the plane? »
The VG report also notes that the Ministry of Higher Education is struggling to give sufficient priority to the expansion projects submitted by various CEGEPs in the province, in the context where some of these institutions have a surplus of space while other classes in need to set up libraries. because their classrooms are overcrowded.
For example, the Cégep de Saint-Félicien, which has a surplus of space, has received the requested funding in recent years to expand part of its infrastructure, while “nothing in the file justifies this priority” that Quebec has given to this establishment has awarded at the expense of CEGEPs that have a “dire lack of space”, such as that of John Abbott, we can read.
But “how can we call ourselves excellent managers of public resources when we are faced with record deficits (in maintaining CEGEP assets) and non-existent analysis networks? » launched Liberal MP Michelle Setlakwe during question time in the National Assembly on Thursday morning. ‘Is there a pilot on the plane? »
In response, the Minister of Higher Education, Pascale Déry, acknowledged the existence of “certain shortcomings” raised by the General Auditor regarding the maintenance of the buildings in the college network. However, she assured that the government has not remained “inactive” in the face of the rapid growth of the deficit in maintaining CEGEP assets in recent years. “We have invested a lot of money to maintain assets” in addition to setting up “mechanisms” aimed at better guiding the selection of projects to be prioritized.
“It was first come, first served, so we set up calls for projects to (ensure) we had a good understanding of the situation,” she argued. She also said she was confident that Quebec’s planned investments in the maintenance of CEGEPs will make it possible to “resolve a large part of the maintenance deficit of the assets in the coming years”, which the VG doubts in its report .
With Marie-Michèle Sioui