MONTREAL - After 94 students were fined for blocking the Champlain Bridge during the morning rush-hour, Concordia students took to de Maisonneuve Boulevard during the afternoon, snarling traffic downtown.

Both protests came on the same day as Quebec Finance Minister Raymond Bachand tabled the province's 2012-2013 budget, making the government's plan to increase tuition by $325 per year over the next five years official.

When asked if the ongoing pressure from the students would change the government's plan, Bachand was adamant.

"The decision has been made," Bachand told journalists during a lock-up before the budget was read in the National Assembly at 4:05 p.m.

"We are very angry to see that over 220,000 students are out in the streets on a strike mandate and the government isn't listening to students," said Martine Desjardins, president of the Federation etudiante universitaire du Québec.

A sit-in with several hundred students was also held in front of the National Assembly.

"If Mr. Bachand wants this to be settled on the streets, it'll be settled on the streets," said Desjardins.

With the government of Premier Jean Charest require to call an election in the next year, ministers have sold the tuition hikes by asking students to do their "fair share."

The government's rhetoric towards students abruptly turned harsh after the blockade by as many as 150 students on the Champlain Bridge.

The government response came quickly; it delivered a populist message in a morning news scrum by Education Minister Line Beauchamp and Public Security Minister Robert Dutil.

Beauchamp accused the students of "antagonizing the workers who pay for their studies," and of wanting to stick taxpayers with the totality of the rising cost of funding universities.

"It's enough," Beauchamp said.

"First of all, (what they did is) dangerous... Students demanding free university need to realize that they're annoying workers whom they want to leave with the entire bill."

It was a marked departure from the more genteel tone struck by the government in recent weeks as students walked out of their classrooms by the tens of thousands and began joining near-daily protests.

Liz Colford, a student who joined a protest in front of Concordia's President Frederick Lowy's condominium—the condo was purchased with a $1.4 million interest-free loan from the university—blamed the increasing privatization of universities.

"Universities are becoming more influenced by the private sector and students are being asked to invest more and more in their future. It is making education less accessible," said Colford.

The virulence of the government reaction to Tuesday's events suggested it might not be giving up on the idea that there's political hay to be made from the tuition issue.

An election is expected anytime between this spring and late 2013.

Some students are beginning to argue that higher tuition is a debt trap, forcing students to choose higher-paying career paths instead of those that better serve the public.

Over 100,000 students are expected to turn out for a National Day of Action on Thursday.

With files from The Canadian Press.