Québec Education Minister Line Beauchamp says she is “disappointed” with the counter-offer on post-secondary education funding made by two student federations, the FEUQ and the FECQ, many of whose members have been participating in the longest student strike the province has ever seen.

Perhaps the federations are not aware how Ms. Beauchamp conducts business. If students want results from the Minister, maybe they should consider joining her exclusive “breakfast club.”

Past members include managers of the engineering firm Genivar, who organized a lucrative breakfast in Ms. Beauchamp’s honour, raising in the order of 60k for the Liberal Party of Québec (PLQ). Also present at the $1000-per-plate April 6, 2009 event was mafia kingpin Domenico Arcuri.

Back then, Ms. Beauchamp was Environment Minister. Genivar along with Mr. Arcuri’s company, Énergie Carboneutre, were seeking the green light from Ms. Beauchamp’s department to be able to participate in the bidding for certain lucrative soil decontamination contracts.

Details of the breakfast were published in La Presse today, along with details of the Arcuri family’s generosity (Domenico and Antonio Arcuri gave $2995 and $2990 respectively to the PLQ).

As it turned out, Énergie Carboneutre got the required approval from Beauchamp’s department.

Can’t students take a hint? The Minister is “disappointed” with the offer. If students want to get Ms. Beauchamp to take them seriously, they will have to “sweeten the deal” as they say. Maybe they should bring some tasty breakfast Danishes to the next round of bargaining…

David Bernans is a Québec-based writer and translator. Follow him on twitter @dbernans.