Dear Members of the Loyola Community,

Quebec’s Bill 9 requires schools like Loyola to choose between government subsidy and our Jesuit, Catholic mission. After a year of careful study, our Board of Governors and our Jesuit Board of Directors unanimously elected to protect our mission: Loyola will forgo provincial subsidies and become a fully independent school, on the timeline the law allows.

For 130 years, Loyola has formed young people in mind, heart, and spirit as lived daily in our classrooms, our chapel, our fields, and our service to others. That is what this decision protects.

The reason is a change in the law. This past April, Bill 9 came into effect. It requires schools in Quebec that receive government subsidies to comply with Quebec’s secular policy or forgo those subsidies. Most schools in Quebec are not religious. For Loyola, this legislation goes to the very heart of who we are, and it asks us to choose between subsidies and our mission.

We saw this coming, and we prepared. When the bill was introduced last year, the Board of Governors struck a Strategic Assessment and Planning Committee to study what it would mean for Loyola and how we should respond. When the law took effect in April, we undertook a full consultation of our broad community: nearly 1,500 of you answered our survey, and we held confidential conversations with key stakeholders and potential donors. The committee also commissioned an independent financial feasibility study and a detailed analysis of the implications for our faculty and staff relating to their pensions. Throughout the summer, the committee and our Boards studied, digested, and discerned every path open to us. And through it all, you told us two things above all: protect the mission and keep Loyola financially accessible.

That work kept leading us back to one fundamental question: what is the mission of Loyola High School? The answer has not changed since 1896: to form young people who are intellectually competent, open to growth, religious, loving, and committed to doing justice, in an education where faith is not only a classroom subject but also woven through the entire school day. It is what so many of you told us must never be abandoned. Under the new law, keeping the subsidy would require Loyola to change important aspects of how we live our Jesuit, Catholic mission. After careful discernment, we concluded that we cannot make those changes and remain faithful to who we are.

Before we describe what, this will entail, we want to speak about financial aid, because it is not a footnote to our plan. It is the foundation of it. We know from the results of the community survey what is so important to so many, namely that a financially independent Loyola does not become a school that only some families can afford. That would contradict the very mission we are seeking to protect: we cannot form men and women for others if our doors are not open to them. So, hear us clearly: financial aid will grow substantially through and after this transition. It is our shared hope that a financially independent Loyola remains open to any family who wants to be part of it, as it is today. How close we come to realizing that hope depends on this community. The more successful the capital campaign described below is, the more accessible Loyola remains. That is not ours to deliver alone. It is ours to build together.

Here is what the decision means, plainly. The provisions of the law that affect subsidies take effect in 2029, so this transition will unfold over the next few years: deliberately, not overnight, with time to plan well.

Government funding currently covers a meaningful share of what it costs to educate each student and replacing it will take effort from all of us. We know that for most families who do not currently receive financial aid, the most immediate question is simple: How much will this cost me? Forgoing the subsidy creates a gap of roughly $7,500 per student each year. In today’s dollars, total fees would move from approximately $12,530 toward $20,000-$21,000, remaining meaningfully less expensive than comparable independent schools in Montreal.

Philanthropy will matter more than it ever has. What we promise is that there will be no surprises: each year’s tuition and fees will be communicated to families well in advance, and every significant step of the transition will be shared with you openly.

We made this decision from a position of strength, not weakness. More students have applied to Loyola in the past four years than at any time in our history, our academic and extracurricular life has never been richer, and our finances are solid. This is not a school in crisis. It is a school choosing its future.

To make all this possible, our Boards have authorized a significant capital campaign to grow our endowment. We are not starting from zero: the Loyola High School Foundation has been building it for decades, and early conversations with potential donors have been very encouraging. But let us be clear: this letter is not an ask. Today is about telling you where Loyola is going, and why. In the months ahead, we look forward to sharing how our community is coming together around this moment.

There are more important details than this letter can properly cover. Alongside this letter, you will find a Questions and Answers document that addresses the topics we believe are most important to our community. And we invite you to join us for a public information session on Wednesday, September 16 at 7:00 p.m., in the Eric Maclean, SJ Centre for the Performing Arts, which will also be streamed online. Questions may be submitted in advance to info@loyola.ca.

Who we are will not change: Loyola will remain Loyola, a Jesuit, Catholic school, tomorrow morning and every morning after. The government’s funding rules have changed, but our mission has not. Our school has faced challenges before, but each time it has emerged stronger. We will write this next chapter of our history as we have written every previous chapter: together.

With gratitude for your trust and commitment to Loyola,

Fouad Maroun President, Loyola High School

Patrick M. Shea ’90 Chair, Board of Governors of Loyola High School

Related Articles:

• September 4 Q&A
• Navigating Law 9: FAQ
• Board of Governors Establishes a Strategic Assessment and Planning Committee 
• Loyola High School Announces Key Leadership Appointments