Jacques Parizeau, former Parti Québécois premier, is quoted in a front-page story in the daily Le Devoir saying free tuition is a realistic option.
Moderate students are calling for a tuition freeze at the present $2,168 level, while more hardline students, with the support of Quebec’s two mini-political parties, Québec solidaire and Option nationale, say tuition should be free.
“Bravo Mr. Parizeau!” said Québec solidaire co-spokesperson Françoise David, inviting the former premier to join her party.
Marois has been pitching for a compromise solution, indexing tuition fees to the cost of living, while the universities say the $1,778 increase the previous Liberal government proposed was too little.
Last Friday, after Higher Education Minister Pierre Duchesne indicated Quebec does not have the financial means to end tuition fees, Marois said free tuition could be debated at the planned tuition summit in Montreal Feb. 25, 26.
But Marois also appealed for a compromise, respecting Quebecers’ ability to pay.
With the National Assembly resuming Tuesday after its winter break, reporters tried to engage Marois on the proposal by Parizeau that the capital tax he initiated, as Quebec finance minister between 1976 and 1984, be restored and the revenues used to finance Quebec’s universities, tuition free.
The Liberal government of Jean Charest phased out the capital tax, which business groups said killed jobs and discouraged investments, from 2007 to 2011.
Marois did comment on the possibility Cardinal Marc Ouellet could be elected pope. Abitibi-born Ouellet was archbishop of Quebec City diocese and primate of Canada before he took on the task at the Vatican of naming new bishops.
“I think we will let the cardinals choose their next pope and if it is a Québécois we will be very proud,” Marois said.
But when reporters tried to follow up with questions on Parizeau’s proposal for free tuition, the premier turned and entered a PQ caucus meeting without answering.
While saying free tuition can be debated at the summit, Marois argued at the end of a weekend PQ meeting that indexing fees to the cost of living, as she proposes, is synonymous with a freeze.
Student leaders have said equating indexing to a freeze merely muddies the waters.
Parizeau, who gave $200 to Option nationale leader Jean-Martin Aussant during the election campaign last August, told Le Devoir that successive Quebec governments intended to phase out tuition fees and said businesses should contribute more.
Parizeau said abolishing the capital tax on financial institutions “has created no jobs.”
“All it has done is transfer money from taxpayers to shareholders,” Parizeau said.
Nicolas Marceau, the current PQ finance minister, indicated he has no intention reintroducing the capital tax.
“We have already presented a budget for 2013-2014,” Marceau told reporters. “And I am satisfied with the revenues.”
And he reiterated his determination to balance Quebec’s budget in the current fiscal years and suggested he would not allow Quebec’s universities to run deficits, as Le Journal de Québec reported, quoting anonymous sources.
“I think they should respect what was agreed,” Marceau said.
International Relations Minister Jean-François Lisée, who was an adviser to Parizeau when he was premier 1994-1996, said the Parizeau proposal was a contribution to the debate.
“We wanted a debate,” Lisée said. “We have a debate.”
Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Kevin Dougherty
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