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Moody’s credit ratings agency has downgraded Concordia University and warned McGill its financial outlook has weakened in light of recent Coalition Avenir Québec government decisions affecting these institutions. The news should come as no surprise since many warned such negative effects could come from these reckless policy changes.

Moody’s ranks the creditworthiness of borrowers using a standardized ratings scale. Good ratings mean favourable borrowing conditions, while a downgrade means the opposite — higher rates. This affects everything from day-to-day operations and academic hires to long-term infrastructure plans.

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The agency concluded that the tuition hikes and policy changes, including new French-proficiency requirements, will deter out-of-province students and international students from attending these two Montreal universities, thus straining their finances. We therefore have, in the CAQ, a government whose deliberate policy decisions undermine and financially weaken Quebec higher-learning institutions simply because they’re English institutions.

McGill is objectively the province’s highest-ranking university and one of the most prestigious in the world. It adds millions of dollars to Quebec’s economy. Instead of ensuring this academic institution continues to excel and attract research talent, the premier and higher education minister have succeeded in kneecapping it.

What continues to strike me is how little value the CAQ seems to ascribe to education and higher learning. Our CEGEPs and universities have become battlegrounds for the this government’s identity wars. First, Bill 96 was hastily introduced with no consideration for the worrisome effects on English-language CEGEP students — even though teachers on the ground warned the government the timeline was unrealistic and the resources were lacking to properly implement the changes. Then, the CAQ decided to go after English-language universities.

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In both cases, the dismissal of concerns and apparent disinterest in the inevitable fallout suggest that, to the CAQ, these institutions aren’t seen as Quebec institutions, but only as English ones, undeserving of equal concern and respect. Not only is that petty and divisive, but it’s also quintessentially feckless and financially irresponsible as government policy. You’re hurting Quebec institutions and Quebec students in the process. These students’ academic losses are Quebec’s losses. These institutions’ financial downgrade are Quebec’s downgrade.

Is pleasing language hardliners — presumably delighted to see English institutions now scrambling — worth the cost of the overall damage to our economy and reputation? How does setting young Quebecers up to fail or undermining English institutions’ success and viability improve the government’s “chronic underfunding of French universities” or fix working conditions so bad that 5,000 teachers have quit in the past five years?

A government’s job is to undertake policy changes and decisions that aim to facilitate and improve the lives of all their residents and protect and strengthen all public institutions. It often appears that the effect of CAQ decisions matter less to them than any potential gains or optics with their voting base. Some Quebecers may have been convinced that a loss for English-language institutions is a gain for French ones, but one wonders how this can be when even French-language universities denounce the CAQ’s decision to target their English-language counterparts. Our educational institutions need better funding, not being pit one against the other.

The rhetoric might fool some people into believing the English-speaking community is somehow the enemy, but what we’re seeing now is a Quebec government actively attacking Quebec institutions. This “us versus them” attitude is counterproductive for a Quebec that can thrive only when all Quebecers thrive.

Premier François Legault likes to talk about national pride in Quebec’s achievements, but his government’s pride appears limited and selective. Provincial decisions communicate who and what is valued and welcome. The CAQ’s zero-sum game will have a lasting effect on Quebec’s economy and reputation, with no positive repercussions for French-language academic institutions in the process.

Toula Drimonis is a Montreal journalist and the author of We, the Others: Allophones, Immigrants, and Belonging in Canada. She can be reached on X @toulastake

Recommended from Editorial

1. Robert Libman: The CAQ is moving the goalposts in CEGEPs. At what cost?

2. Toula Drimonis: Does the CAQ even care about education?

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   Toula Drimonis: I have questions about Quebec’s tuition scheme

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