Morning everyone. We are now six days away from an election in the province of Quebec, which the polls have pegged as being an absolute nail-biter. With five parties polling above 10%, it’s conceivable that the Parti Québécois might gain an absolute majority with less than 30% of the vote. Do not skimp on the popcorn next Monday night.
Dear reader, you will be shocked to learn that post-secondary education has received virtually no attention in this election, a fact bemoaned by École de technologie supérieur’s Kathy Baig and Concordia’s Graham Carr in an excellent Gazette op-ed two weeks ago. This is the province that spends the most on higher education, and apparently none of the political parties seem to think it’s worth talking about all that much. The only even vaguely higher education-related subject on which different parties seem to want to expend any breath is on the subject of turning unpaid student internships into paid ones. Which, you know…paying people for work is good and all, but it doesn’t actually improve the sector.
Anyways, in reverse order of the importance each party places on higher education issues:
5) Parti Conservateur du Québec (PCQ). Not actually a new party – they were around for the last election in 2022 – but with currently zero seats in the National Assembly, they might as well be. It’s a very conservative party, both socially and – weirdly for Québec – fiscally as well. Think of it as the provincial expression of Bernierism (which it is, to some extent, with a shared geographic base in the Beauce and the suburbs of Quebec City). The party is currently polling in the mid-teens and if that holds up, they can expect a dozen or so seats (see Philippe Fournier’s projections here).
Its overall manifesto is here. Its education manifesto, which is all about K-12 school choice and never mentions post-secondary education, is here. It’s impressively-detailed explanation of the tax cuts it intends to implement is here. I don’t think it’s unfair to say that universities and CEGEPs will be expected to tighten their belts and shut up in the event of a Conservative victory. And while that outcome might be unlikely, in the event the Conservatives end up shoring up a PQ minority, this perspective will matter.
4) Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ), or, “L’équipe Fréchette” as they now call themselves in a desperate attempt to get everyone to forget that least four years of François Legault (not very successfully – the party has been doing better in the polls lately but still risks being wiped out next Monday). At the time of writing, the Party had not put out a full manifesto; instead, it was busy publishing a set of regional manifestos (one for Quebec City, one for Trois-Rivières, etc.), none of which mentioned post-secondary education. Probably not a surprise because none of the last three annual party conferences mentioned it either. As of the 30th of August, the party published a costed platform which said almost nothing about individual promises, but just said there was going to be $9.2Billion of “engagements a venir” while still hitting a balanced budget by 2029-30 (“Lord give me self-control…but not yet”).
3) Parti Québécois (PQ). Remember them? They were supposed to be dead and buried, but the absolute uselessness of the CAQ and a reasonably telegenic new leader had brough them back to life and, if polls are to be believed, very close to majority government territory. The party platform is very short on actual policy because, as far as they are concerned, sovereignty is the platform. Only not too much of it too soon, because that might scare voters. So instead of a normal party platform, the PQ has a “livre bleu” which is kind of a greatest hits album of every sovereigntist critique of Canada. Soothing and nostalgia-ridden if you are old enough to remember Meech Lake, utterly soporific if not. What little it says about post-secondary education is fascinating though:
Le taux de diplomation postsecondaire au Québec est comparable à celui du reste du Canada et des États-Unis. La diplomation universitaire y est un peu moins élevée qu’aux États-Unis et que dans le reste du Canada, ce qui s’explique par l’importance de la diplomation technique au collégial. En effet, le choix de société consistant à donner une grande importance à l’éducation collégiale a fait en sorte non seulement que les cégeps ont pris une place prépondérante dans les choix des étudiants, mais aussi que les diplômes collégiaux jouissent d’une bonne réputation auprès des employeurs. En cela, la situation du Québec est davantage comparable à celle de l’Allemagne, de la France et de la Suisse, où la diplomation universitaire est même plus faible qu’au Québec sans pour autant empêcher ces pays d’avoir des économies très développées. En outre, une grande majorité des emplois au Québec se situent dans des domaines qui ont peu recours aux diplômés universitaires : fabrication, construction, commerce, transport, restauration, hébergement, soins personnels, etc. Il est donc difficile de conclure que le taux de diplomation universitaire constitue un frein au développement économique. Enfin, le système scolaire québécois produit une éducation de bonne qualité si on en juge par les résultats des élèves québécois aux tests PISA.
There are numerous layers of subtext here, but overall, it doesn’t sound like this is a party that feels much need to invest in higher education. Not good.
Unlike the CAQ and the PCQ, PQ has in fact made three specific promises: saying it will pay for student internships in the health field (but only the health field as far as I can tell), pay an extra $10 million/year for student mental health supports, and will back a new medical school roughly on the model of NOSM University. Of these three promises, only one actually appears to be costed in the party’s cadre financier which promises a return to a balanced budget in 2028-29 (which does not suggest there will be much space for more institutional funding.
2) Québec Solidaire (QS). This is the old urban left wing of the PQ coalition. It is probably the most outright socialist major party in Canada, and they appear to be on track for somewhere between 5-10 seats, all in Montreal. Its full platform can be found here. No prizes for guessing that the party’s number one issue is not funding for institutions, but rather tuition fees. To wit:
Pour inciter nos jeunes à poursuivre leurs études au-delà du secondaire, il faut lever les barrières qui se dressent devant elles et eux. Un gouvernement solidaire instaurera graduellement la gratuité scolaire complète du primaire à l’université. Ceci mettra fin aux frais afférents (transport, service de garde, matériel scolaire, etc.) et autres coûts, améliorera l’accessibilité aux études et redonnera de l’élan à nos cégeps et à nos universités.
This is meant to sound radical, but if you bother to look at the party’s cadre financier, you will realise that in fact, they are talking about reducing fees, not eliminating them. At most, five years down the line, QS is talking about spending $350 million/year on this. Assuming they are not planning on spending any of this money on either international or out-of-province students, the reduction in fees that would pay for is about 35-40%, not total elimination. While there is no danger of QS ending up in power, there is the possibility that its views on tuition might matter in the event of coalition negotiations.
In addition, QS is also promising up to $500M in payments to students for internships, substantially more than any other party. It also promises an “États géneraux” on education, which is a way of saying the party itself has no ideas, but it is sure that if a lot of people from within the sector were put in the same room, they would come up with some.
1) Parti Libéral du Québec (PLQ). It may be unfair to put Liberals at the top of this list when they clearly aren’t really promising any greater financial support to the sector than anyone else (I make it $100 million after four years), but let’s put it this way: this is the one platform where there is at least a glimmer of recognition that universities actually matter economically, particularly when it talks about innovation and regional development. Of course, financially they are still far more into paying students than institutions ($375 million for paying interns…why less than the $500M QS is promising? Your guess is as good as mine). There is also a one-liner in there about “modernizing student aid”, but with no price attached, which suggests they aren’t actually thinking of improving student aid. And finally, the Liberals have echoed QS’ call for an “États géneraux” for education, which suggests a fair degree of kicking the can down the road.
Anyways, that’s it. No one is coming to save the sector. Again. But at least election night will be fun.
