Quebec government will not appeal court ruling scrapping out-of-province tuition hike [Video]

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 …