CAQ

Court did not overturn tuition increases, says Déry

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By Dan Laxer
The Suburban

Quebec Education Minister Pascale Déry took to her X account to denounce the media last Tuesday, accusing two newspapers of publishing “misinformation.”

There were at least two reports, last week, indicating that the CAQ would not be appealing the Quebec Superior Court ruling ordering the government to eliminate the 33 percent tuition hike for students from outside Quebec. It is indeed the case that the government had not filed an appeal by deadline last Monday. But that did not mean, Déry said, that the government accepted the decision.

The ministry argues that the April ruling did not take issue with the 33 percent tuition hike itself, but rather with how the government got there in the first place.

“I want to be clear,” Déry said in her X post, “the court did not overturn the increase; we are sticking to the decision. We firmly believe that it is not up to the Quebec government to guarantee financial accessibility to education for non-Quebeckers.”

Last February McGill University and Concordia University filed suit against the Coalition Avenir Québec’s plan to charge out-of-province students higher tuition fees ostensibly to protect the French language and to effectively reduce the number of non-Francophone students in the province. They argued that the government’s plan violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

In April, Quebec Superior Court Justice Éric Dufour ruled in the universities’ favours, saying the rise in tuition for non-Quebeckers was “unreasonable,” and that the available data did not support Déry’s position on the ability of non-Quebec students to integrate. He also said that the French-proficiency requirement was “equally unreasonable.”

However, he upheld the government’s rules on funding international students.

Déry continued in her X post: “The judgment not only supports the measure aimed at correcting the financial imbalance between English-speaking and French-speaking universities, it also recognizes the government’s responsibility to take the necessary steps to protect French in Quebec.”

“Regarding the arrangements surrounding knowledge of French for students outside Quebec,” Déry added on X, “we will continue discussions with English-speaking universities over the coming weeks.”

The universities have also chosen not to appeal the ruling. For its part, McGill University issued a statement to The Suburban, saying “The judgment is quite clear. We will abide by it, as we hope others will. We remain committed to maintaining a constructive and respectful relationship with the Quebec government.”

Concordia was not as conciliatory. In a statement emailed to The Suburban, spokesperson Vannina Maestracci says the university was “astonished” by Déry’s comments. “We had hoped that the decision by the Superior Court in April could mark a reset of our relationship with the government. The comments made today by the Ministry – one day after the end of the appeal period – make it clear that this is not the case.” She added that it seems “the government simply plans to come back with a new set of arguments to justify an increase of tuition fees for out-of-province students – which would be inconsistent with the judgment.” n

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Liberals in the Gaspé Peninsula believe in Pablo Rodriguez

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Nelson Sergerie, LJI Journalist

NEW RICHMOND – Christian Cyr, president of the Quebec Liberal Association of the Gaspé Peninsula-Magdalen Islands and Bonaventure believes that Pablo Rodriguez’s election will enable the provincial Liberals to regain power in the October 2026 election.

“He has everything it takes to reconnect the party in all regions of Quebec and in urban areas. Pablo Rodriguez is a unifier, and his work has already begun,” said Christian Cyr.

The former federal minister won in the second round on June 14 with 52.3% of the vote, narrowly defeating Charles Milliard with 47.7%.

Former premiers Philippe Couillard and Jean Charest welcomed the new leader on stage.
“There is a rallying cry. The Liberal Party has a history dating back more than 150 years. There have been great achievements in Quebec with sound management of government affairs. There is a lot of experience within the party, as well as new faces and new forces. It’s a good combination to lead Quebec,” said Mr. Cyr.

Now that the party has a leader, the next 15 months will be focused on reconnecting with Quebecers and preparing for the upcoming electoral campaign.

“Presenting a credible alternative to the CAQ (Coalition Avenir Québec) government, an alternative that will reconnect with the regions and present credible plans for both state management and regional affairs,” Mr. Cyr explained.

Marc Tanguay served as interim leader for two and a half years following Dominique Anglade’s resignation after the debacle of 2022. His leadership during that period was praised. “He did a very good job, often walking a tightrope to keep people united. People were always waiting for a leader. He was very skilled and experienced. The troops are ready for a big step forward,” believes Mr. Cyr.

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Pier-Luc Bujold remains president of the Nurses’ Union

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Nelson Sergerie, LJI Journalist

CARLETON-SUR-MER – Delegates from the Eastern Quebec Nurses, Nursing Assistants, and Respiratory Therapists Union have re-elected Pier-Luc Bujold as union president for a third three-year term.

Mr. Bujold was first elected in 2017 following the departure of Micheline Barriault, who led the union for nearly 30 years.

“We are committed to continuity and to improving the services we provide. We know we are doing a good job, but we want to continue over the next three years,” says Mr. Bujold.

Delegates concluded a three-day convention in Carleton-sur-Mer on June 12.

“We are taking stock of the situation and need to be united, as the CAQ (Coalition Avenir Québec) government is governing with Bill 89, Bill 100, and Bill 101, which could have a major impact on the members we represent in the coming years,” concluded the president following discussions with the union delegates.

The union criticizes the government for not consulting the public before putting its bills on the table. “There are specific characteristics in the Gaspé Peninsula that must always be taken into account. There are important issues for workers under Bill 101. There are many injuries and absences from work. There is a direct impact on the quality and quantity of care provided to the public. The impact of these bills on workers should not be minimized,” notes Mr. Bujold.

Following discussions with delegates, action plans will be developed for future action in the field.
With the CISSS needing to find $20 million to meet the budgetary framework provided by Santé Québec, the union foresees difficult times ahead.

“The announced initial cut of $40 million has had an impact. There have been job cuts and service reductions, even though services are already minimal,” notes the president, who makes a proposal. “In our action plan, we have added campaigning to restore local services in CLSCs. We have a dispersed population. There are too many horror stories of people not receiving care, especially home care,” says Mr. Bujold.

According to him, the next few years will remain difficult, but he sees a light at the end of the tunnel.
“The population, as we can see in surveys, is becoming increasingly critical of everything the government is doing with regard to public services. I see Gaspesians who care about their local services. If we are united, we could see the light at the end of the tunnel,” believes the union leader.

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Correctional officers demonstrate in Chandler

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Nelson Sergerie, LJI

CHANDLER – On May 1, correctional officers from the New Carlisle and Percé detention centres held a demonstration in front of the Bonaventure Member of the National Assembly’s office in Chandler. 

The twenty or so officers who attempted to meet with MNA Catherine Blouin denounced the Quebec government’s proposed offer of 12.7%, while most other government employees received 17.4% over five years. 

“We want to make it clear to our CAQ (Coalition Avenir Québec) elected officials that the offers are not satisfactory given our working conditions. Our collective agreement expired in 2023. We are here to 
make it clear that the 12.7% offer is not sufficient given the increase in violence and the mandatory overtime that has become commonplace. Our conditions have deteriorated significantly in recent years, and we are asking for a raise that reflects the value of the work we do,” explains Noémie Boudreau, president of the New Carlisle Detention Centre officers’ union. 

The Quebec government considers that working conditions are too high to justify a lower raise than other public sector workers. 

“The employer has many requests for a reduction in our working conditions. They are willing to increase the salary offer only if we agree to a reduction in our conditions, which is unacceptable,” warns Ms. Boudreau. 

The union does not have the right to strike or to arbitrate. Agents must be imaginative to make themselves heard, like a commercial recently aired during Canadiens playoff games. “There are approximately three meetings per week at the bargaining table. Depending on the means we use to make ourselves heard, it can move quickly or take time, but we will not neglect our efforts to reach a satisfactory settlement,” emphasizes the president. 

The union would like to conclude a new collective agreement before the summer season. 

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A minister’s astonishing statement about his Caquist colleagues in the Gaspé region 

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Nelson Sergerie, LJI Journalist

QUEBEC CITY – The Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) Members of the National Assembly representing the Gaspésie may not be deemed qualified enough to serve as regional ministers, at least that is the impression left by Christopher Skeete, Minister responsible for Regional Development, during a budget session on April 29. 

The comment came in response to a question from Parti Québécois Member of the National Assembly (MNA) for Matane-Matapédia Pascal Bérubé, during the study of the 2025-2026 budget in the parliamentary committee. 

“I want to talk about the Abitibi-Témiscamingue and Gaspésie-Îles-de-la-Madeleine regions. Does the minister think it would be a good idea for these two regions to have regional ministers who are MNAs for that territory?” asked Pascal Bérubé. 

“I think it’s on a case-by-case basis,” replied Mr. Skeete. “Does he think it would be desirable?” asked Mr. Bérubé again. 

“I don’t make the connection between the idea and the conclusion as to whether or not it’s a good thing. You can have a minister responsible for your region who is from your region and that doesn’t mean that he or she would be good,” said Mr. Skeete. 

Questioned on the sidelines of a press conference, the mayor of Gaspé preferred to be cautious in his comments. 

“That’s the Premier’s prerogative. I still think it’s unfortunate that we don’t have a regional minister among our regional deputies, but I can’t say that we’re badly served by Minister Maïté Blanchette Vézina, who is doing the necessary representational work as regional minister. But it has always been an advantage to have a regional minister among our deputies. I won’t say any more,” says Daniel Côté. 

He points out that in the past, ministers representing the region have been in Quebec City and Montreal.  Currently the Regional minister is the MNA for Rimouski.  The Gaspé Peninsula is represented by CAQ MNA Catherine Blouin in Bonaventure and CAQ MNA Stéphane Sainte-Croix in Gaspé. 

The last regional minister actually elected within the Gaspé region was Gaétan Lelièvre, Parti Québécois MNA for Gaspé, who served as Minister of the Regions between 2012 and 2014. 

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Tuition hikes threaten student services

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Geneviève Sylvestre,
Local Journalism Initiative

Concordia’s precarious financial situation can be felt in every corner of the school

Concordia University is facing what is being referred to as “extraordinarily challenging times” in the budget updates for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, leading to a drop in student services.

The Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) tuition hikes at English-language universities increased the tuition for out-of-province students to $12,000 and of international students to a minimum of $20,000. International students from France and francophones from Belgium pay out-of-province student fees. 

Angelica Antonakopoulos is the Arts and Science Federation of Associations (ASFA)’s academic coordinator. She says the government has made the Quebec education system inaccessible.

“Our institutions, especially English institutions in the province of Quebec, have now been priced out of the game,” Antonakopoulos said.  

Concordia is experiencing the largest drop in enrollment in its history, with a projected drop of 1,200 students for 2024-2025. Registration for out-of-province students has declined by 28 per cent and for international students by 11 per cent.

Concordia student groups and student unions are all funded by a fee-levy collected from each student’s tuition based on the number of credits they are taking. A decline in the student population leads to a decrease in funding for these groups.

According to Danna Ballantyne, the external and mobilization coordinator for the Concordia Student Union (CSU), the decrease in funding is already being felt by the CSU. 

“We’ve had to forecast a decrease in budget because of a drop in enrollment,” Ballantyne said, “and that’s affecting the CSU in basically every facet.”

Concordia’s goal is to reach a deficit of $34.5 million for the 2024-2025 school year, down from the original projection of a $78.9 million deficit, requiring $35.8 million in budget cuts. 

According to CSU Campaigns research, students can expect to see fewer course offerings, larger class sizes and a loss in funding to programs deemed inefficient.     

Adam Sermergian is ASFA’s mobilization coordinator. He says that students are unhappy about some of the university’s budget cuts, mainly regarding the reduction of the shuttle bus service.

“ASFA [is] really trying to promote that we, as students, should have a say on what gets cut and what does not get cut,” Sermergian said.

The government’s new tuition framework makes it so a bigger percentage of tuition fees is clawed back from universities in Quebec to be added to a government pool split between the whole university network. 

Before the new tuition framework, the tuition fees for international students were deregulated, with universities in Quebec setting the tuition fee for international students and keeping all of the revenue. 

The government pool has increased 54 per cent since last year, from $259 million to $400 million. English institutions account for 50 per cent of the clawback, but will only be receiving 20 per cent in return. 

Penelope Higgins, CSU’s campaigns researcher, has been working on two reports that will be published shortly regarding the history and impact of the tuition hikes on the Concordia student population. She believes this clawback is a way for the government to avoid investing in universities.


“It is a way of cutting public funding for them. They take more money from student fees, […] that gives the government more money to spend on universities that doesn’t have to come from public funding,” Higgins said. “So it’s a way of privatizing the source of funding for higher education.”

Higgins says that, regardless of tuition framework, international students are expected to pay for everyone.

“This is a larger and a longer fight for international students to be treated with justice, and to not be exploited as a source of funding to keep what are supposed to be state-funded public services in Canada alive,” she said. 

Antonakopoulos says it’s important for students to care about tuition hikes because it is an issue that affects the entire student body.

“It’s really important for students to be incentivized to care,” Antonakopoulos said. “Because, even though they are not being affected personally at their bottom line, it is their education that will ultimately be affected.”

This article originally appeared in Volume 45, Issue 1, published September 3, 2024.

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CAQ’s ‘half-baked’ health measures too little too late

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By Trevor Greenway

Local Journalism Initiative

The head of a local health watchdog group says the bonuses extended to Wakefield, Maniwaki and Shawville medical techs are too little, too late. 

While SOS Outaouais president John Pigeon said he was happy that the CAQ government finally agreed to pay rural medical technicians the same $22,000 bonus as their counterparts in Gatineau and Hull, he said he feels the temporary measure is only a band-aid solution and just kicks the region’s health crisis down the road two years. 

“By no means does this really solve anything in the deep problem that we’re facing,” said Pigeon Sept. 9, two days after the CAQ announced the additional funding. “We see the government acting to, sort of, putting out this little fire here and there, but there is a big, overall problem, and that problem is that there’s a lack of the capacity for our Integrated Health and Social Services Centres (CISSS) to be able to be competitive with the market of Ontario.”

Earlier this summer, amid a looming health crisis in the Outaouais that saw a number of health technicians in the region leave for Ontario where they could make $30,000 more in salary, the CAQ government announced a $22,000 bonus for medical techs in Hull and Gatineau. 

The move was criticized by the province’s public health and social services union, the Alliance du personnel professionnel et technique de la santé et des services sociaux (APTS), as well as politicians and health groups. 

In response, the province backtracked and offered workers in Wakefield, Maniwaki and Shawville an $18,000 bonus – $4,000 shy of the money their counterparts were offered in urban Outaouais hospitals. This was announced Sept. 7. 

Quebec’s health ministry told the Low Down that the union had agreed to the bonuses. 

“Let us first recall that the Ministry of Health negotiated and agreed on bonuses with the APTS,” wrote the ministry in an email Sept. 5, two days before increasing the bonuses. “A committee was set up to monitor the effects and will make recommendations, if necessary.” 

Gov’t failed to act until near collapse

Liberal MNA for Pontiac and the official health critic André Fortin said, while the bonuses are a good start, he is “frustrated” that it took a near-full healthcare collapse in the Outaouais for the government to finally act. 

“It’s shocking that it took months and months and months for the CAQ government to realize what everybody was telling them – what the region’s wardens were saying; what the CISSO president was saying; what the radio techs themselves were saying: that we needed one bonus across the region in order not to fight amongst ourselves and deplete some hospitals to replenish others,” said Fortin. 

Fortin said he agrees with SOS Outaouais that, while the bonuses, which are only in effect for two years and only offered to full-time employees, are nice, they don’t tackle the region’s real issue: paying doctors, nurses and medical staff enough money to make them stay in Quebec. 

“We should be addressing the fundamental issue here, which is the discrepancy in salaries between our healthcare workers and Ontario’s healthcare workers,” he said. 

“Minister [Christian] Dubé and Premier Legault, for some reason, still insist on using temporary, half-baked measures that will not address the crux of the issue and will not allow the regional healthcare network to start improving.”

The Outaouais network of prefects, the Conférence des préfets de l’Outaouais (CPO), called the bonuses a “significant victory” for healthcare workers, as well as patients, in the region. 

“The CPO duly welcomes this decision, which strengthens our region and demonstrates the impact we can have by joining forces to defend the interests of the Outaouais,” said CPO president Benoit Lauzon in a statement. 

“We thank the local stakeholders of the government of Quebec, the APTS and all those who contributed to this important victory for the region.”

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Public transportation workers protest lack of funding

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Workers of transport unions protesting outside of Transport Minister Genevieve Guilbault’s office in downtown Montreal. Photo Corinne Boyer

Corinne Boyer
Local Journalism Initiative

On Nov. 14, hundreds of bus drivers, maintenance employees, and other staff from public transport companies protested in front of Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault’s office to petition for more investments in transportation.

The demonstration, which started at 10 a.m. had union workers sounding their horns, blasting music, and holding signs of Minister Guilbault’s face that said “return of the sardine class in buses,” mocking her refusal to invest in public transport until ridership returns to higher levels of commuters.

The protest was planned in retaliation to her government’s proposal in late October to pay only 20 per cent of Quebec’s collective transport $2.5 billion deficit. Four of the union presidents spoke at 11:45 a.m. to denounce this lack of investment.

“We all know that the government must give more money to the Société de Transport,” said Julie Sigouin, president of the Société de Transport de Laval (STL) drivers’ union. “With more money, we’re going to be able to have more buses on the road and more trains in the metro.”

Lack of funding has caused large deficits in the transportation sector and has forced transit companies to implement cutbacks. These cutbacks have largely affected the number of buses that are able to run on a daily basis. If such abatements are put into effect, the metro may have to close at 11 p.m. and buses may only run until 9 p.m.

Nicolas Nadeau-Fredette, media relations and public affairs manager at Trajectoire–a non-profit association that specializes in collective transport for Quebec–confirmed that passenger traffic is at more than 100 per cent in certain areas, and union representatives and transport workers fear that this will encourage the public to take their cars.

According to Nadeau-Fredette, union workers are asking for investments in operational services, which would allow for more bus drivers to alleviate these high traffic rates in certain areas. Though he says that the minister is refusing to invest more sums of money until commuter traffic returns to its pre COVID-19 overcrowding rates.

As negotiations continued, the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government agreed to pay 70 per cent of the deficit, a 50 per cent increase to what they initially agreed to pay. Ultimately, they changed the way to calculate the deficit, which resulted in the potential reimbursement of a smaller amount. This led to contention amongst union groups and transport employees and led to their decision to demonstrate.

“Quebec municipalities responded by saying they agree that the government should pay 70 per cent but to calculate from the right numbers,” Nadeau-Fredette said.

Union representatives are asking the government to honour the promises made by former Minister of Transport, François Bonnardel in 2021. They also want the government’s honesty and transparency in their calculation methods for the 70 per cent deficit debt that they promised to pay off.

“Adequate funding ultimately saves households money, since transportation is the second-largest budget item for Quebec families, who are already hit hard by the cost of living,” said the president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), Marc Gingras.

The Syndicat canadien de la fonction publique and the CSN are calling on Premier François Legault and Minister Guilbault to make the right choice for the future of Quebec as well as future generations by investing the essential amounts of money into transport services. 

Public transit workers say they will continue to plan demonstrations if the government fails to heed their calls and that a future strike is not out of the question.

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