For the second time in a week, former Parti Québécois premier Lucien Bouchard has taken a public stand against PQ policy, this time pressuring the Quebec government to sharply increase tuition fees so the province's under-funded universities can regain their competitiveness.
On Feb. 16, Mr. Bouchard stunned his former party by urging the PQ to set aside its goal of achieving Quebec sovereignty and focus on more urgent needs such as education, health care and public finances.
His forays are turning out to be a major thorn in the side of the PQ but a welcomed support for the Liberal policies of Premier Jean Charest.
Yesterday, Mr. Bouchard tackled postsecondary education, going public with 15 other prominent Quebec figures, including former Liberal finance ministers Michel Audet and Monique Jérôme-Forget. He demanded the government act immediately to relieve university underfunding.
"Quebec universities are dangerously underfunded compared with those in Canada and North America," Mr. Bouchard said at a news conference in Montreal. "These precarious finances have now reached a critical stage. If nothing is done, it is students themselves who will suffer first. And surely, inevitably, so will all of Quebec society."
When he was premier, Mr. Bouchard maintained a freeze on university tuition fees, which are the lowest in North America. When he was finance minister, Mr. Audet didn't tackle the politically sensitive issue. His successor, Ms. Jérôme-Forget, only partially lifted the freeze in 2007, increasing tuition fees by $100 a year until 2012.
But Mr. Bouchard's views have changed, and his comments clashed with PQ policy that continues to support low tuition fees. Instead, he sided with his former Liberal foes and a growing number of right-leaning economists, business and university leaders to promote higher fees.
Mr. Bouchard's arguments were prominently displayed on the Quebec Liberal Party website, signalling that the Charest government intends to use the former PQ leader's comments to support its case for an increase in a number of fees, tariffs and levies to generate new revenues in next month's provincial budget.
A report released yesterday by a government-appointed advisory group of experts also called for a major tuition-fee hike as one of the many proposals aimed at arriving at a balanced budget by the 2013-2014 fiscal year. The advisory committee proposed that the government increase annual tuition fees to $5,350 a year - the Canadian average - from the current Quebec average of $1,968. This would represent an additional $650-million a year, the committee said.
Mr. Bouchard's group called for fee increases based on each student's program. For instance, a medical or law student would be required to pay much higher fees than a general arts student. The proposal would generate $570-million more per year, with $170-million of that sum redirected into a program to help financially disadvantaged students.
The president of the Quebec University Students Federation, Jean Grégoire, fears the government may be setting the stage for sharp tuition-fee increases and plans to mount a strong opposition against any such initiative.
"We would find it deplorable for the government to push ahead with these proposals without holding public consultations," Mr. Grégoire said.
"There are other ways to cut costs and increase revenues, and one of them would be to make universities more accountable on how they use public funds."
In the past, Quebec students have organized major protests against sharp tuition fee hikes, insisting such a move would limit the opportunities of people from lower-income families.
