Valued at more than $30 million, the sports complex projected on the grounds of Mont-de-La Salle high school is at the heart of the issues of the electoral campaign in the county of Laval-des-Rapides.
“It was already a commitment for me in 2018”, underlines the outgoing Liberal deputy Saul Polo who recalls the importance of this file for the 2000 students who attend the school, but also for the whole community then that these sports facilities would benefit the leisure organizations on evenings and weekends.
Petition and letter to the PM
Last February, at the start of the parliamentary term, Mr. Polo presented the Minister of Education with a petition signed by 1,064 people in support of “this project which has been underway since 2017 at the School Services Center [CSS] of Laval”, explains the one who had agreed to sponsor the online petition on the site of the National Assembly in January.
On February 3, in a letter addressed to Prime Minister François Legault, the president of the Student Parliament at the Mont-de-La Salle school, Ines El Magroud, illustrated the “crying need for additions of sports facilities” by the fact that the school management was forced to requisition “the old historic chapel with its stained glass windows” to hold physical education classes there.
“It is inconceivable in our society where equal opportunities prevail that a school in a disadvantaged environment has such a lack of sports infrastructure,” she writes, while emphasizing the power exercised by the practice of sports in the fight against school dropout.
For his part, the general manager of the CSS de Laval, Yves Michel Volcy, recently confided to the Mail Laval that this sports complex project, considered a priority by the school authorities, had been submitted in 2020 as part of the 2021-2031 Quebec Infrastructure Plan (PQI).
During a summit meeting last January, Mr. Volcy had the chance to raise awareness among the Minister of Education, Jean-François Roberge, and the minister responsible for the Laval region, Benoit Charrette.
from bad to pee
“So close to the elections, I am surprised that there has still not been an announcement”, commented the instigator of the petition and member of the governing board of Mont-de-La Salle secondary school. , Anne-Marie Morel.
This one was all the more surprised, last Monday, by noting that the basketball court in the schoolyard had been sacrificed during the summer for new modular classes for the start of the school year.
“Not only do we have no response that improves the situation, but on the contrary we see the playground of young people crumbling. We are not going at all in the direction of the requests that have been made and supported by the population”, deplores Ms. Morel during a telephone interview.
Arranged over the previous 3 years, the first 12 trailer classes had already made a soccer field disappear, she does not fail to recall.
After the elections
Passing through the riding where he presented candidate Céline Haytayan in Laval-des-Rapides last Tuesday, the Premier and leader of the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ), François Legault, was questioned on the subject, namely whether an announcement government was possible between now and the call of the elections.
«You me you will find out not myself for what will be announced during the election period, but it is certain that for Isabelle Charest [ministre déléguée à l’Éducation], for me and the entire CAQ team, sports and artistic activities are important. We added five hours a week in all secondary schools, among other things, for more sports […] We know that there is a lack of infrastructure in Quebec; therefore, I ask you to be patient.”
