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National News

The Cadre

¢ 17November 1998

Leaders address Quebec education as election campaign heats up

By PIERRE SAUVE

MONTREAL (CUP) -- With only three weeks leftuntil pro- vincial election day, Liberal leader Jean Charest and Pre- mier Lucien Bouchard have begun fighting it out for the often ignored but always im- portant student vote.

After weeks of virtual silence on post-secondary is- sues, Charest announced he would shield universities from the government’s planned $125-million education cut- backs for the 1998-1999 fiscal year. '

“It is unacceptable to con- stantly submit colleges and uni- versities to these cutbacks,” Charest said. “The government thinks it is profiting from the cuts, but in fact, it is thedevelopment of Quebec society that suffers.”

But Charest also said earlier in the race that ifelected premier, he would lift Que- bec’s much-loved tuition freeze.

Bouchard has vowed to maintain the current tuition

freeze if re-elected.

He also says he’d like to progressively reduce parental contribution to student loans and increase the government’s contribution.

Quebec students receiv- ing loans are automatically assumed to bereceiving money from their parents. The PQ, which reduced the minimum

parental contribution during its

current mandate, would re- duce it by a further 10 percent if re-elected.

Student loans have be- come a hot issue in the cam- paign. The PQ government recently changed the interest- free grace period following graduation for repaying the loans, reducing it from six months to one.

Quebec’s Ministry of Education is currently faced with a class action lawsuit be- cause of the changes.

Charest has said that, if elected, his government will restore the six-month grace period.

But while the Liberals

and PQare finally talking about post-secondary education, only the third-party Action Democratique, with six per cent of popular support, is calling for a cash injection into Que- bec’s under-funded universi- ties.

Party leader Mario Dumont says he’d like to see changes to the way university: programs are financed. He wants to increase the funding of university programs that have a superior employment average by 130 per cent, and by 70 per cent for programs that are below the employ- ment average.

His platform also calls for additional fiscal incentives for private companies to help finance Quebec universities and colleges.

The largest student group in Quebec says it is skeptical Bouchard can alleviate the fi- nancial dire straits of students in the province a situation it says his government contrib- uted to.

But Nikolas Ducharmes,

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president of the Fédération Etudiante Universitaire du Québec, also says his group welcomes the PQs election promises.

“All those measures are interesting and positive be- cause they help students,” he said.

Ducharmesalso supports Charest’s pledge to cancel the planned cutbacks, but deplores hisplanto lift thetuition freeze.

Other student leaders are less eager to believe the elec-

tion promises of either the Lib- erals or the PQ.

“Both Charest and Bouchard are the same,” said Mistie Mullarkey, presidentof the Quebec component of the Canadian Federation of Stu- dents. “They won’t give us nearly what we want.”

Mullarkey says all three parties have largely ignored the issues the group’s call for a national system of grants and zero tuition.

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