TaCEQ

Description

At first the Quebec Student Roundtable (Table de concertation étudiante du Québec, or TaCEQ) existed informally, with the current members meeting occasionally when issues arose, issuing joint press-releases on matters of common interest and carrying out lobbying as well as demonstrations together. The quality of SSMU’s relationship with the other TaCEQ members made it possible and even desirable to formalize our ad hoc coalition and turn it into a single province-wide organization, issuing one concerted voice, conducting broader research, and carrying out more efficient public policy reform campaigns. Over the course of 2008-2009, the legal and political process was undertaken and the TaCEQ was officially born this summer of 2009. The TaCEQ structure is built to avoid, as much as possible, many of the pitfalls that were met in previous student lobbying organizations, which SSMU has been involved in. These pitfalls were what led the TaCEQ member associations away from the other student lobbying organizations.

Below is listed some of the ways in which the TaCEQ is qualitatively distinct from other student lobbying organizations.

No membership fees

All the other student lobbying organizations charge membership fees, ranging from $5 to $20 annually, to all the students they represent. While this provides valuable resources to the organizations for their lobbying efforts and their research, SSMU and the other members of the TaCEQ have come to see these fees as an option and not a necessity. We have witnessed the organizations we were once a part of become bloated and excessively bureaucratic, and inclined to focus on self-preservation. We agree that an organization with a smaller budget that operates more on the basis of good-will and co-operation, rather than entitlement and high salaries, is a better formula to properly represent our students. Thus we are in the process of applying for a provincial government bursary that is available to province-wide lobbying organizations such as the FEUQ and the TaCEQ. These bursaries would fund the activities of TaCEQ.

Decentralization and respect for local sovereignty and autonomy

SSMU’s previous experience with a number of federal or provincial student lobbying organizations has been one of disillusionment. We witnessed these organizations, holding large budgets derived from membership fees, become dominated by a small self-interested caste of executives. They made repeated unconscionable political decisions, especially with respect to SSMU. For example, in 1995 SSMU’s name was included in an official submission supporting Quebec secession, despite a prior promise to the contrary made to SSMU.

All the members of the TaCEQ strongly believe that any truly democratic and representative student lobby organization should function on the basis of such values as democracy, collegiality and respect for those whom these organizations are made, in the first place, to represent – the actual students and their local associations. The by-laws of the TaCEQ have been set up to ensure that the activities of the executives are closely scrutinized by the TaCEQ membership and that executive discretion is reduced to a strict, desired, minimum. In addition, the by-laws also state that associations who do not agree with the majority position held by the TaCEQ can simply retain their independent voice and refuse to be associated with campaigns or official positions they are opposed to.

Nonpartisanship

SSMU has been a member of student lobbying organizations plagued with covert support of one political party or another. This has often led the lobbying techniques and messages of these organizations to be drawn into partisan rhetoric, both at the federal and provincial level. The TaCEQ believes in the importance of a politically independent voice for students. Partisan affiliation or alignment is specifically prohibited in the by-laws of the organization. No matter the political tides of the moment, the TaCEQ believes students’ issues should come first and the message should not be influenced or affected by the platforms of political parties.

Easy exit

Student politics are, by nature, volatile and ever-changing. In this environment, it is crucial that SSMU focus on the vital interests of the McGill students it represents. If a student lobbying organization no longer suits the interests or the political positions of SSMU, there should be nothing withholding SSMU from disaffiliating as quickly as we would like. Many student associations, including SSMU, have faced enormous challenges exiting student lobbying organizations. Lawsuits and complicated financial messes have been the end result of many disaffiliation processes over the past decade. Often strict by-laws regarding exiting procedures have left student associations in legal tangles. The by-laws of the TaCEQ provide an easy exit process for any student association that no longer finds this organization beneficial to its membership.

Summation

Ultimately, the TaCEQ is intended to function as a formalized round-table, where member student associations can, with a louder voice, lobby the government with improved success. The structure of the TaCEQ is built to prevent it from turning into a large organization carried away with its own purpose and disconnected from its base.

For more information on TaCEQ, please don’t hesitate to contact the VP External.