Dawson students call on Quebec to revive CEGEP's expansion project

A petition created by members of the Dawson Student Union (DSU) demanding the Quebec government reverse its recent decision to shelve the school's long-awaited expansion project was tabled in the National Assembly Wednesday morning. 

Jennifer Maccarone, the MNA for the Westmount—Saint-Louis riding, presented the petition in the legislature on behalf of the students, with some of them in attendance. 

After circulating on social media and being available on the National Assembly website since Feb. 22, the petition garnered nearly 20,000 signatures, falling short of its 30,000 goal. 

The petition states that the CEGEP is "suffering from a space deficit of more than 11,000 square metres" —  the size of 10 typical office floors —  and says cancelling the project "will have a negative impact on programs offered to current and future Dawson College students."

The CEGEP community was outraged by a January decision to quash the planned $100-million project in favour of more funding for French-language CEGEPs. The Ministry of Higher Education had asked Dawson College representatives to instead work on alternatives to the expansion, such as renting additional rooms. 

At a news conference Wednesday, Quebec Liberal Leader Dominique Anglade says scrapping the project, which has been seven years in the making, sends a message to all English-speaking CEGEPs that they are not a priority. 

"It's a matter of equity, and that's why we support the petition presented today," she said, alongside Maccarone and members of the DSU. 

Maccarone notes the expansion project was prioritized by the Coalition Avenir Québec government in 2020, and according to her, it was abandoned without proper justification. 

"They now have an opportunity to do the right thing," she said.

CBC News contacted the Ministry of Education for comment but did not receive an immediate response. 

Overcrowding a 'safety hazard,' students say

Currently, Dawson students lack 30 per cent of the space they are entitled to, according to the Ministry of Higher Education's own norms. DSU president Alexandrah Cardona says the goal of the project is to create more space, not bring in more students.

Cardona says going ahead with the expansion project is a question of fairness and would not amount to preferential treatment for Dawson students.

She says the CEGEP's escalators and elevators are regularly packed, and social distancing, even during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, has been impossible. 

"Frankly, it's a safety hazard," she said.

Cardona said the CEGEP is already renting additional classrooms and that has not effectively made up for the space deficit. 

The Dawson expansion would have created a new health-care pavilion, which was to have housed a community clinic and the school's seven health-care programs. 

Arwen Low, vice-president of external affairs for the DSU, says the CEGEP's medical programs serve the entire province.

"Our graduates from the health-care programs do not become anglophone nurses, doctors and technicians. They become Quebec nurses, doctors and technicians, and they serve in every region, in French as well as in English."

Cardona says the petition is a message to the government, but it's not the end of the students' efforts to bring the plan to fruition. 

"We will continue to mobilize if in fact the project is not restored to the priority it was," she said.