Denis Monière

Denis Monière is the Option Nationale candidate for Sainte-Marie-Saint-Jacques. After studying in Paris and Ottawa, Monière taught at the University of Ottawa and has been teaching at the University of Montreal since 1986.

Tuition Fees

"For us, education should be free from preschool to post-secondary," said Monière. "We believe that a society that invests in the development of knowledge is profitable: the more people are educated, the more they will have qualified and interesting jobs, the higher their income will be. They will pay more taxes and the state will earn back its investment."

Monière says that the federal government cut education transfer payments to Quebec, and an independent Quebec would be able to finance free tuition fees. "If we were not part of Canada, we could get the taxes back we sent to Ottawa," said Monière. "We send more than $50 billion in taxes to Ottawa [per year]."

University Fiscal Management

"Universities cry hunger but aren't doing anything to reduce their expenses," said Monière. He wants to increase the number of academics sitting on university Boards of Governors.

"We believe that at least 50% of the BoG should come from the academic community," he explained. "[Business people] don't know anything about the university. They come here to apply the [private] enterprise model."

Financial Aid

"Students have to live, so there will be a system of loans," he said. "A loan in itself isn't bad - what is bad is excessive debt," said Monière, adding that free tuition would gradually reduce the need for recourse to private lenders.

Youth Unemployment

"Obviously there are no magical solutions," said Monière, who believes the current system does not connect young people with the market's needs. "We propose a system of internships, starting in secondary school, which would link education with the labour market, with job requirements."

Youth Vote

"Because we are a very young party and the vast majority of our members are young, we don't have any particular strategy to target young people," said Monière.

Plan Nord

"Our philosophy is completely opposite to that of the Liberals," said Monière. "Our policy is about nationalizing all natural resources. We believe these natural resources are the property of Quebecers, and that it is Quebecers that should benefit from them."

"We're not against private enterprise, but we believe the state should regulate the exploitation of natural resources. The Liberal government says we're going to get royalties of 4-5%, and the PQ says 14%. We say: No, royalties should go up to 70%," he added.

Monière said that before coming to this conclusion, the ON looked at royalty policies in other countries. Royalties on petroleum in Norway, he said, can be as high as 70%. Option Nationale, he said, would have Quebec companies process the province's natural resources, citing diamonds as an example of an industry where this is already being done.