Quebec government vows to maintain out-of-province tuition hike despite court ruling

Quebec Minister for higher Education Pascale Dery responds to the Opposition during question period at the National Assembly. (Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press)

The Quebec government is promising to maintain a university tuition hike for out-of-province students despite a court ruling that found the existing policy is not justified.

“We are sticking to our decision,” Higher Education Minister Pascale Déry said Tuesday on social media. “We firmly believe that it is not up to the Quebec government to guarantee financial accessibility to education for non-Quebecers.”

The minister’s office confirmed earlier in the day that the government will not appeal a Superior Court ruling, issued in April, that overturned a 2023 decision to hike out-of-province tuition by 33 per cent. That move was a bid to reduce the number of English-speaking students in the province and protect the French language.

Justice Éric Dufour found the $3,000 tuition hike was unreasonable and “not justified by existing and convincing data.”

He ruled that the fee hike could remain in place for up to nine months until the government revises its tuition plan.

Déry did not offer details on how the government will maintain the tuition hike while conforming to the court ruling. She pointed out that the judgment also “recognizes the government’s responsibility to take the necessary steps to protect French in Quebec.”

The ruling also struck down a new requirement that 80 per cent of out-of-province undergraduate students at English-language universities reach an intermediate level of proficiency in French by the time they graduate. That rule was to come into effect this fall.

Dufour found that threshold was unreasonable because of the “almost certain impossibility” that the universities would be able to meet the target.

Déry said the government will hold discussions with the universities about the language requirement in the coming weeks.

The court ruling upheld the Quebec government’s decision to set minimum tuition for international students at around $20,000 and to claw back a large portion of the fees from English institutions to redistribute them to French-language universities.

McGill and Concordia challenged the changes in court last year, arguing that they violated the Canadian and Quebec charters of rights. They also argued the new rules were unreasonable and not supported by evidence.

The judge opted to resolve the case under administrative law which requires governments to act fairly and lawfully. He said courts generally only engage in constitutional debates where it is truly required.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 10, 2025.

By Maura Forrest, The Canadian Press