Quebec’s minister of education is on the defensive, after a public school teacher says she dug better desks out of the garbage of a private school than she had in her public school classroom.

François Blais says he doesn’t believe that the dumpster diving was necessary.

“I don’t think public schools have been reduced to that,” Blais told reporters in Quebec City. “The budgets for school furniture have remained the same.”

Blais’s comments were in response to claims from a primary school teacher at the Pins school, in Oka, that she picked up 13 desks from the garbage heap at a nearby private school for her students.

Anik Roussin told La Presse that the desks discarded by St. Therese Academy of Rosemere were in better condition than the desks her students sat in at the public school where she teaches.

“You know, our desks are old, rusty, scratched. We had to spend time painting and screwing them back together ourselves,” she told the media outlet. “That does not make any sense.“

The desks look new next to the ones she had in the classroom for her 15 students, Roussin, who did not immediately respond to a message requesting an interview, told La Presse.

“Beyond the joy for my students, I think it is a shame to have them put to waste. Especially from a subsidized private school, in the current context of budgetary cuts,” she said.

A spokesperson for the school board told the newspaper that she had no idea how old the desks at Pins were but they were in good condition.

The director of St. Therese suggested that is not the case for the desks taken from the private school’s trash.

Rose De Angelis told La Presse that the desks may have looked okay but were not, in fact, in good condition.

Quebec teachers are currently in negotiations for a new contract with the government. Their last contract expired in April.

Teachers for both the English and French school boards have voted in favour of limited strike action and the Fédération autonome de l'enseignement, which represents about a third of Quebec teachers, went out on Sept. 30. The federation plans two more strike days later this month.

The Fédération syndicats de l'enseignement, which represents 65,000 other teachers, are considering six days of rotating strikes to come.

And teachers at Quebec’s English school boards voted in favour of strike action that may come later this month, as well.

The education minister told reporters on Wednesday in Quebec City that more than $400 million is being invested this year on building new schools and expanding existing ones, including the purchase of new furniture.

“I cannot comment on the specific example [of Pins] but public schools are not at all reduced to that,” Blais said.