After holding office for only one day, Quebec Premier Pauline Marois is following through on her campaign promise to cancel the university tuition hikes imposed by the outgoing Liberal government.
Students and accessible education activists are celebrating this highly anticipated move, after months spent protesting the controversial hikes implemented by former Premier Jean Charest.
Marois said Thursday that her Parti Québécois minority government plans to maintain the $39-million increase on student financial assistance set up by the Liberals prior to the election. She went on to say that tuition for the school year will be capped at $2,168.
“The increase is cancelled for this year, for 2012-13 and for the next years, we will have the discussion at a summit on education,” said Marois during a news conference.
This summit is expected to happen within the first 100 days of the PQ taking power.
Her second order of business upon taking office was to put an end to Law 78, another controversial piece of legislation which limited the legality of protests taking place almost nightly within the province. CBC Montreal reported that the law would officially “come off the books” Friday.
More to come.
