2024 – Financial stress when starting school

For many parents on a tight budget, back-to-school shopping remains a financial burden and a hassle.

In the gymnasium of a school in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve neighborhood, Operation Backpack distributed school supplies this week to 413 children from low-income families in the neighborhood. Families followed a short path through the large room, first selecting a backpack and then adding the various pencils, highlighters, school bags and notebooks that were on the list of items requested by their school.

“Thank you very much,” says Davidson Irivuzimana to the volunteers as he leaves the village with his arms full of supplies for his six children. “It's not just useful, it's very useful,” admits this single father of Burundian origin. “For us parents who receive social assistance, it's a great help.”

The free distribution is organized by the education support organization Je passe partout, one of about 30 local partners of Regroupement partage, which buys school supplies in bulk and at preferential prices for 10,000 children in Montreal and several other regions. The market value of each well-filled backpack is $150, says Audrey Renaud, executive director of Regroupement partage, which has been running Operation Backpack for more than 20 years thanks to private donations.

“This is a record number of children we will be helping,” she said. Last year, 7,400 children received school supplies, and in 2022, that number was 6,200. M^Me Renaud notes that demand for this service is increasing every year. The cost of school supplies – and especially of life in general – is putting a strain on parents.

“Everything has become expensive: food, school supplies, clothing, shoes…” reports Mélissa Quesnel, who was found at the action in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve.

She pulls out the list of things she needs to buy for her four children who go to school. In high school, the bill for textbooks, agendas and other teaching aids that she has to buy through the school is almost $150 per child. Then there's a list of school supplies – folders, pens, etc. That's where Operation Backpack comes in. “It offers help,” says M.^Me Quesnel.

According to the Consumer Price Index published by Statistics Canada, the price increase for school books and school supplies reached its highest level in 10 years last year. In June, the annual increase was 3.7%, compared to 2.8% in the previous year. In the consumer price index published by Statistics Canada, The dutyThis year we are seeing increases of this magnitude or slightly less. Last year they were significantly higher, mainly due to the high transport costs from Asia.

For its part, Regroupement-Partage had rather noted an overall increase of 40% in all Operation Backpack purchases last year, including food – a component that was abandoned this year. The final figures for the current school year are not yet available, but M^Me Renaud has seen an increase of around 20% so far.

A plastic bag and some old pencil remnants

In Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, the surplus is sent directly to schools, explains Samuel Carrier, managing director of Je passe partout, because many families are unaware that help is available and some children arrive at the start of the school year without the necessary equipment.

“We see students showing up at school with a plastic bag and old pencil stubs,” complains M.^Me Renaud: Normally, school staff try to remedy this. The subsidy of $121 per child to buy school supplies that the Quebec government sends to families is welcome, but in many families in precarious situations, this money is used for accommodation or food, she believes.

In the current economic context, it is not only families living below the poverty line who are feeling the budgetary pressure of the start of the school year, believes Mélanie Laviolette, president of the Federation of Parents' Committees of Quebec (FCPQ). “Parents feel that it is the high additional expenses that are hurting,” she stresses.

Strategies to reduce the bill

In this context, parents and schools are trying to keep the costs of back-to-school as low as possible. At the Léo stationery store in Montreal, the owner of the shop has noticed that the lists of required materials have shrunk somewhat. “There are fewer extras. They take the bare minimum,” says Monica Popa, who takes the time to chat with her. The duty despite a large influx of customers. She estimates that the average bill for all the items on these lists, which her store prepares turnkey for parents, is between $110 and $120.

The FCPQ stresses that school authorities have recently been given a monitoring function to “ensure that the fees charged to parents are genuine and that the materials requested are actually used”. The “just in case” has essentially been abolished. In order to reuse materials from the previous year, teachers are also required to be flexible in terms of colours and formats, reports M.^Me Laviolette.

Carthia Fleurial, who we met with her two children at the Léo stationery store, says she has been able to reduce her bill by reusing. “We will spend the money on something else, like shoes for the back-to-school season,” she says.

For its part, the Retail Council of Canada has found some changes in Canadians' shopping habits for the back-to-school season through a survey. They are planning their purchases earlier and are more likely than ever to shop in-store rather than online. Almost 46% of respondents said they consult brochures when making their purchases.

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