Jacqueline Perlin
Assistant News Editor
As the provincial election nears, education platforms have become a decisive point for each party.
The Ontario New Democratic Party (NDP) announced a key plank of their education platform last Thursday September 17, promising Ontario’s post-secondary students a four-year tuition freeze at the cost of $950 million.
This comes as the Ontario Liberals announced a $1,600 tuition grant for students, placing education at the cornerstone of their platform.
“We are conscious that as much as students are burdened with student debt, calling for a freeze for four years would be a big help,” says Rosario Marchese, NDP member of provincial parliament for Trinity-Spadina and their critic for training, colleges and universities. “We know it doesn’t solve the problem of debt, but to give such relief for four years is a big deal.”
Despite the tuition freeze, Alastair Woods of the York Federation of Students (YFS) says the platform simply doesn’t go far enough.
“[The NDP] argument is a little flat,” says Woods, maintaining that students don’t need just a freeze on tuition but a rollback on fees as well, a move made by Newfoundland and Labrador. “Right now [tuition fees have been] shifting cost off the public onto the backs of students.”
Marchese, however, says rolling back tuition fees at this point in time would be far too expensive.
Nevertheless, John Milloy, minister of training, colleges and universities, adds that the cost of freezing tuition fees is closer to $1.8 billion rather than the estimated $950 million, considering the NDP’s plan is to reimburse universities for the amount they would lose by not being able to increase tuition rates.
“The question I have for [NDP leader] Andrea Horwath is, ‘where is all this money coming from?’”, says Milloy, noting that a tuition freeze could result in cuts to services for students. “[Andrea Horwath] isn’t magical [and the freeze in tuition] may leave universities and colleges shortchanged in terms of quality.”
Marchese responds, saying that by returning to the 2010 corporate tax rate, the government will immediately be able to reap $1.3 billion.
“We recognize there are fiscal issues and[…]that this government hasn’t managed our resources very well, and it’s for that reason that the reckless corporate tax giveaway that the Liberals have been giving for the last couple of years is wrong-headed,” says Marchese.
“We’re not going to simply freeze tuition and not support our universities,” Marchese says, “It’s not a matter of just taking revenues away from universities because if we did that we would be hurting the quality of education system.”
The NDP platform also promises a relief plan that would forgive students in debt for the interest on their loans if they are unable to find a job.
