Proposed budget cuts & fare increases anger groups, universities

Quebec university administrators and students are speaking out against cuts and fee hikes proposed by the Parti Quebecois.

Minister of Higher Education Pierre Duchesne said on Tuesday that Quebec universities will need to cut $124 million dollars from their budgets.

But university officials aren’t happy with that announcement.

Université de Laval rector Denis Brière expressed his frustrations in Radio-Canada interview last Wednesday.

Brière criticized the PQ for breaking their promise to hold an education summit before making any decisions regarding higher education in Quebec.

McGill principal Heather Munroe-Blum addressed the cuts in a mass email sent out last Friday.

In the message, Munroe-Blum called the cuts “short-sighted.”

The McGill Daily reported that Duchesne also wants to increase international student fees by 7.6 per cent.

Martine Desjardins, president of the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec, told The Daily that this fee hike adds up to over two hundred dollars extra per international student.

STORY WRITTEN BY: ALYSSA TREMBLAY