Quebec's tuition plan for English universities 'inconsistent,' says opposition

Premier François Legault must demonstrate, with studies, that the presence of out-of-province students at Quebec universities jeopardizes the survival of the French language -- or retract his statements on the matter. 

That's what Liberal MNA Madwa-Nika Cadet said on Wednesday, whose motion was promptly rejected by the Caquist government.

Quebec plans to double the annual bill for new Canadian, out-of-province students as of next year. It will also impose a $20,000 tuition for international students.

Legault justified this decision Tuesday by saying he wanted to protect the French language.

"The number of English-speaking students in Quebec threatens the survival of French," he said at a press briefing.

In an interview, Cadet said the government's arguments are inconsistent, as it accuses English-speaking students of undermining French while also complaining that these students don't stay in Quebec once they graduate.

"If they leave Quebec, how are they anglicizing Quebec from a distance? There's something completely inconsistent here. You can't give us both arguments in the same sentence and think it's logical," she said.

The Liberal French language critic added that McGill University was about to present a $50 million francization program before the government cut it off.

This type of "structuring" measure would have enabled young people from other provinces to learn French and better understand Quebec, in addition to creating "ambassadors" for French outside Quebec, she believes.

"These people, when we welcome them and give them a Quebec experience, well, when they leave, it allows them to promote French in their own way afterwards," Cadet argued.

In the meantime, she's demanding that the Coalition Avenir Quebec government produce impact studies proving that Canadian students threaten the survival of French. If the studies prove otherwise, the Premier should "withdraw his remarks" and replace them with "truthful statements."

Asked in a press scrum whether she had documented the impact of Canadian students on the decline of French, the Minister of Higher Education, Pascale Déry, limited herself to saying that "everyone knows that French (...) is very fragile."

Instead, Déry insisted that the tuition fee increase corrected the financial "inequity" between English- and French-language universities.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Oct. 18, 2023.