Young Liberals ponder tuition hike
Delegates at convention call for rapid changes
KEVIN DOUGHERTY, The Gazette
Published: 13 hours agoAbout 800 delegates to a weekend convention of the Quebec Liberal Party's youth wing will debate the doubling of university tuition fees, to about $6,000 a year, and a proposal for refunds of union dues.
They will also debate proposals calling for elementary students in the French system to do half their Grade Six school year in English, so they become bilingual, as well as motions calling for higher hydro rates and a shift away from income tax to consumption taxes, like sales tax, to put more cash in Quebecers' pockets.
François Beaudry, president of the youth wing, says the Liberals should step on the accelerator and he told reporters he isn't worried about the political price the proposals might carry.
"I am one of those who doesn't think politics is about polls," Beaudry told reporters. "It's about ideas."
The proposals are the result of province-wide consultations with members of the party's youth wing, who hold one-third of the votes at Quebec Liberal conventions.
"We have good ideas," Beaudry said. "They will be debated. We are presenting what the young Liberals want."
In recent months, the popularity of Premier Jean Charest has risen in the polls, and more Quebecers are satisfied with his government, even though the opposition parties charge Charest is running government by cruise control.
Charest said on the way to a meeting with his caucus yesterday, before the weekend youth convention, that he isn't alarmed the youth wing wants him to step on the gas.
"Well, if the youth wing had said the contrary, I would be disappointed and surprised," Charest said. "If you are young, you are always a lot more in a hurry than if you are in another age in your life."
The premier said he would pay attention to the weekend deliberations, adding that his government has been "very active." He noted its $1-billion Employment Pact, in partnership with employers, and agreements to add 2,000 megawatts of wind energy.
And he denied he has been avoiding controversy, pointing to plans to build three new teaching hospitals as public-private partnerships.
The youth wing proposal to raise Quebec's tuition fees, now the lowest in Canada, to the Canadian average, goes beyond the Charest government's plan to phase in a $500 annual tuition increase over five years.
Under an innovative proposal, students would not have to pay the additional tuition burden right away, but only after they graduate.
They would pay a percentage of their additional debt in the form of a so-called "post-graduate tax." Details as to how much they would repay and for how many years have not been worked out.
Beaudry explained that the proposal to allow union members a refund of their dues is meant to establish a new balance of power between unions and their members.
"The worker works hard and he contributes for many years," Beaudry said. "It's a lot of his money. We want to protect the workers."
Another resolution under debate calls for banning "mosquitoes," ultrasonic alarms that can only be heard to people under age 25 that are used to keep young people away from certain places--
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