Quebec’s student protest over a $1,778 university tuition fee increase caught everyone offguard.

One of the most surprised was Premier Jean Charest, who, armed with a majority win in the 2008 election, has been determined to break with the consensus-building practice of previous Parti Québécois governments. Instead, Charest has imposed his plan to balance the provincial budget by 2013-14.

That plan, laid out in Quebec’s 2011 budget, calls for a two-percentage-point sales-tax increase and higher energy costs, as well as the tuition hike.

By contrast, in 1996, when then-premier Lucien Bouchard decided to eliminate Quebec’s recurring deficits, he summoned civil society – business leaders, labour unions, social groups – and reached a consensus on draconian cuts, including the early retirement of doctors and nurses (with the side-effect of crippling the health-care system).

But those consulted prior to the 1996 cuts could buy in because Bouchard also offered a “pharmacare” plan to cover the cost of prescription drugs and parental leave.

Charest’s claim that he did consult on the tuition hike rings hollow. In December 2010, university administrators, student associations, unions and other groups were invited to a one-day consultation on a plan calling for more tax dollars and contributions from business, as well as the tuition increase, to finance higher education.

No consensus on the plan emerged in the sessions, but Finance Minister Raymond Bachand was clear that tuition fees would rise. Student representatives walked out.

There has been no attempt, then or since, to have the students buy into the plan to provide more money for Quebec’s underfinanced universities.

The students have suggested Bachand could crack down on wasteful university spending on satellite campuses, failed real estate ventures and generous compensation for university administrators.

Rather than engaging in dialogue, Bachand has announced that the $2,500 tuition increase that the universities had sought would be reduced to $1,625 – putting tuition at about $4,000, still the lowest in Canada.

The students subsequently declared a strike in mid-February, with as many as 200,000 students boycotting classes at the height of the protest.

The government has responded with concessions on student aid, addressing the concern that lower-income students would be unduly penalized; the increases will not affect those with family incomes below $72,000 and low-interest student loans will be extended to those with family incomes of up to $100,000. However, spreading the increase over seven years has raised the quantum increase to $1,778, or $254 a year.

But these improvements have been delivered by fiat, without engaging the students. It could be argued the students have won.

They want a freeze now and, in future, free tuition on the model of Germany, Scotland and the Nordic countries. In the students’ view, university should not be a privilege but an extension of free public education that leaves them with no debt after obtaining a degree.

Quebec society is polarized. Charest, grasping for a re-election issue, seems to have found one. The next election will be a referendum on who decides: the elected government on its own or with input from civil society?

© 2012 Investment Executive. All rights reserved.