MONTREAL - Students at UQAM spent Wednesday voting on the agreement-in-principle that was reached over the weekend.

Three students associations voted against the tentative agreement to end the deadlock with the government over university tuition fees. More results are expected later in the evening.

So far, the deal has been largely rejected by student associations across the province. To date, only students at CEGEP de Gaspe have found it acceptable, with other CEGEP and university departments rejecting the deal en masse.

The Concordia Student Union council voted Tuesday night against the deal, in a meeting attended by about 70 students.

"The problem with the government's offer is that it doesn't address the issue that students have been on strike for, for about 13 weeks now, which is the issue of tuition increase," said Chad Wolcott, vice-president of the CSU.

He said many students feel there was a substantial difference between what was discussed over the weekend between student leaders, union representatives, and the government, and what was actually signed.

Wolcott said he represents students who have taken the position "this increase is not needed because there is enough university mismanagement and mismanagement on the part of the government that they could find the money elsewhere without increasing anyone's bill."

The deal worked out over the weekend allows for a reduction in ancillary fees if enough funding can be trimmed from university budgets, but would not allow for any reduction in tuition fees.

The discussion at Concordia University can no longer affect classes, but would have an impact for the summer and fall semester.

"The semester has ended at Concordia but many departments leading up to the end of the semester that are still on strike," said Wolcott. "It's important to talk to those students to see where do we go from here."

Heated argument in Quebec City

Meanwhile the debate came up at the National Assembly.

The CAQ was planning to introduce a motion that called for students to return to class next week.

The Liberal party said it was willing to consider the proposal.

"We'll look at the motion, we'll see," said Alain Paquet, the junior finance minister. "We all hope nonetheless that the students can go back to their classes, and finish their session."

The opposition Parti Quebecois also wanted to present a similar motion, with a caveat that the government resumes negotiations with student groups.

The Liberals refused to allow that motion to be tabled for debate, because the PQ hadn't consulted with the other parties earlier.

With competing motions on the table, the discussion degenerated into a shouting match, forcing the deputy-speaker of the National Assembly to suspend proceedings.

In the end, neither motion was accepted for debate, and the CAQ's Gerard Deltell called it a sad parliamentary day.

"Everybody should have the chance to propose his ideas, but unfortunately the PQ refused the debate. It's sad, to see that we are parliamentarians, we're at the National Assembly, this is the place to have debates -- and the PQ refused to have this debate which is quite important for the future of this province," he said.

Late this afternoon, PQ parliamentary leader Stephane Bedard spoke with CTV Montreal's Maya Johnson, and told her that the PQ didn't support the CAQ's motion because the original wording was too strong.

He said it implied the government should call on police to make sure students who want to go back to class can do so safely.

Bedard said the motion was improvised and irresponsible, and would simply throw oil on the fire, adding to what is already a very tense situation.

The CAQ has said it will attempt to bring the motion back to the table Thursday.