Quebec’s post-secondary tuition freeze could be in store for a thaw.

On Tuesday, former Quebec premier Lucien Bouchard, accompanied by other prominent Quebec politicians, signed a declaration advocating an increase in post-secondary tuition across the province.

Quebec implemented the successful tuition freeze — which kept tuition at roughly $1,700 — in 1994. Currently, however, Quebec universities have been experiencing financial woes.

“These precarious finances have now reached a critical stage,” Bouchard announced at a press conference. “If nothing is done, it is students themselves who will suffer first. And surely, inevitably, so will all of Quebec society.”

Low tuition fees have forged a combined debt of $500 million for Quebec’s universities and has placed a great burden on taxpayers who finance 80 per cent of the bill, according to Bouchard.

Bouchard’s group is calling for a tuition increase based on undergraduate programming and future job prospects. For example, a student enrolled in English or social sciences would pay considerably less than a business student.

“The theory of differentiated tuition has to do with income. A science student technically will make more money than an arts student will in the future. Ontario’s approach has originally been to focus on access. You should be able to access those programs regardless of your background or program,” Dan Moulton, vice-president university affairs for Western’s University Students’ Council, said.

Bouchard’s group did say that they intended to redirect $170 million of tuition fees into a program that would assist financially disadvantaged students.

Quebec currently has the highest post-secondary enrolment rate in the country and it’s increasing, Matheiu Le Blanc, media advisor for the Quebec University Students Federation, claimed.

“If we do raise tuition fees, these participation rates will decrease.”

Moulton believed the problem of tuition discrepancies extend further than Quebec: “There’s certainly a problem here in Ontario and I don’t think it’s an issue of fairness in the sense of Quebec paying less. It’s a question of whether or not it’s fair that Ontario students are being forced to pay so much more. The fundamental piece is that our government isn’t doing enough to support post-secondary education.”

Past attempts at tuition hikes have met with backlash from Quebec students.

“We hope it will not go through and we will fight it,” Le Blanc said. “Unfortunately, the government has been very receptive to the proposition for some time now and have attempted to convince society that increasing tuition fees would be a good thing for Quebec.”

Le Blanc, however, did acknowledge the financial woes universities are enduring in Quebec.