Montreal community groups face eviction after school service centre terminates leases
The groups owe $300K in unpaid rent, told to vacate buildings in the next 30 days
Two community education centres, the Carrefour d'éducation populaire de Pointe-Saint-Charles and the Comité d'éducation aux adultes de la Petite-Bourgogne et de Saint-Henri (CÉDA), both located in Montreal's Sud-Ouest borough, are facing eviction after receiving lease termination notices last week.
Their landlord, the Centre de services scolaire de Montréal (CSSDM) — the province's largest school service centre — is asking the groups to pay $300,000 in unpaid rent and vacate their respective locations in the next 30 days.
Adult literacy is a core component of the programs offered by the centres, but after more than 50 years of existence, their services have expanded and they function as community centres, playing an important role in the communities they serve.
Hélène Gadoury, director of the Carrefour d'éducation populaire de Pointe-Saint-Charles, described those spaces as free and where "you can have community" and "have services all at the same place."
"It's really important," she said, adding there's a daycare and services for seniors too.
Alix Marchaut, who works at CÉDA in human resources and accounting, worries about what will happen if the groups are forced out.
"If we close, what happens to the food bank? If we close, what happens to the people who want to learn French?" she wondered.
"If we close, what happens to the people who just need a space to live and to share and to be supported?"
Where it started
Rent became an issue after the CSSDM, under financial pressure itself, decided in 2017 to increase the rent of its surplus buildings to reflect market value more closely.
However, there was a five-year grace period, so up until 2022, the CSSDM only charged the centres a symbolic rent of $1 per year.
Under the lease agreement, the amount for the following year was set at $3.23 per square foot, or $3,082.77 a month for the Carrefour d'éducation populaire de Pointe-Saint-Charles, and $13,459 a month for CÉDA.
But since then, it has been indexed annually, with the CSSDM setting the price to be in line with the Consumer Price Index.
CÉDA's monthly rent is now $15,084, Marchaut told CBC News, but like the Carrefour d'éducation populaire de Pointe-Saint-Charles, it says it can't afford it.
In Quebec, school service centres and school boards receive funding from the government for their school buildings, including for maintenance, renovation or construction of new schools, but that doesn't include surplus stock.
Earlier this year, though, Quebec school service centres and school boards were told by the provincial government to put renovation projects on hold due to budget cuts.
In the notices served to the Carrefour d'éducation populaire de Pointe-Saint-Charles and CÉDA, the legal team for the CSSDM reiterated the school service centre is a public body responsible for the largest public school network in the province and that it doesn't receive any funding for the maintenance of its surplus buildings.
"Although accommodating, our client must account for its finances and act expeditiously in the administration of its income properties," the notices indicated in French.
"You will therefore understand that it cannot tolerate, in its income properties, a tenant who refuses or neglects to remedy this situation."
Educational mission must remain top priority, Quebec says
Last year the Education Ministry came through with emergency funding for the centres, but this year they said they haven't heard anything from the government.
"We're just here, stuck in a very bad situation because we don't have the money, but we need to keep going. We need to keep going for the community," Marchaut said.
The Comité Social Centre-Sud (CSCS), another community education centre located in the Ville-Marie borough, is facing a similar situation with the CSSDM.
The CSCS received a formal notice at the same time as the other centres saying that its lease could be terminated if it failed to pay rent within 10 days.
In a statement to CBC News, Bryan St-Louis, a spokesperson for the Education Ministry, said the CSSDM is the owner of the buildings and is therefore responsible for their use.
St-Louis also said that school services centres, whose main raison d'être is to educate students, are facing more pressure as the number of students continues to grow, "in particular due to the increase in temporary immigration."
If the service centres need the space for students, he wrote in French, their educational mission must always take precedence.
St-Louis added, however, that the ministry is in contact with the CSSDM to ensure the best solutions are put in place.
But all three groups say it's up to the education minister to fix this.
They argue that they are recognized by the government as educational centres and want to be treated like other educational institutions and have access to a space.
"It's a right for all adults to keep learning all through their lives," said Gadoury.
The community education centres are hoping to sit down with Education Minister Bernard Drainville to find a lasting solution, but are prepared to go to court if necessary.
The CSSDM is already embroiled in a legal battle with 13 community organizations in Ahuntsic-Cartierville, which are housed in another of its surplus buildings.
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With files from Steve Rukavina