Education minister defends decision to give service centres power to take over municipal land

Education Minister Jean-FranoisRobergesaid alast-minute change to Quebec'seducation reform law which allows service centres to take over municipal land is "nothing revolutionary" and only formalizes a power that already existed.

In the early hours of Saturday morning, just before passing Bill 40, his government added the amendment grantingthe province's newservice centres the power to demand that municipalities cede public propertyfor the "purposes of construction or expansion of a school or education centre."

A spokesperson for the Quebec Union ofMunicipalities (UMQ) said that the group was only informed of the change Friday night, less than 24 hours before the government rammed through the legislation.

In a statement, the UMQ said it "strongly disagrees with this decision," which it says goes completely against the recommendations it submitted during the consultation period onBill 40.

Montreal Mayor Valrie Plantesaid she, too, was caught by surprise, and would need more time to study the legislation.

"We need to talk," she said. "To me, this is not the right way,imposing a decision like this."

Plante said she is disappointed with the province's approach, although she understands the need.

"I'mall about having more schools in Montreal, because our families want to stay on the island," she said.

"We were actually having conversations and dialogue, and the dialogue was all open. So I don't understand why the government decided to take that route," she said, "... imposing that at the last minute."

'Status quo not sustainable': Roberge

Roberge responded to criticism to the last-minute amendmentin an interview onRadio-Canada's Tout un matinon Monday morning.

He said negotiations with a municipality to obtain land for building a new school can sometimestake four or five years, and theprovince needed to find a way to speed up thatprocess.

"The status quo is not sustainable," he toldTout un matinhost Patrick Masbourian."We have schools which are overflowing, particularly in the Montrgie, Laval, Saint-Jrme and the entire island of Montreal."

Roberge saidschool boards have had the power to ask for land from municipalities since 1995. The problem, he explained, was that there was no specific mechanism in place to make that happen.

Hesaidnegotiations to obtain land to build new schools could become "never-ending."

The idea moving forward, he said,is that if a service centre wants to build a school, it will submit its plan to the municipality and try to reach an agreement. If that does not happen, the service centre can go back and demand a land transfer as an "exceptional measure."

He clarified that the municipality does have the option to come back and offer a different piece of land.

The new legislation gives service centres and municipalities two years to reach an agreement on a specific property.