Newfoundland & Labrador

Students are applauding New­foundland and Labrador’s 2009 budget for eliminating interest on the provincial portion of student loans and maintaining the freeze on tuition fees.

The budget also increased funding for needs-based grants, a program the Canadian Federation of Students says has significantly decreased student debt since it was first introduced two years ago.

The budget also allocates $34 million to post-secondary education infrastructure, increases operational funding to College of the North Atlantic by $8.3 million and to Memo­rial University by $21 million, and invests more than $1 million to expand faculties of business and engineering and develop two programs at Memorial’s Marine Institute.

New Brunswick

New Brunswick’s March 17 bud­get maintains its tuition fee freeze, but imposes a wage freeze on public service workers and calls on universities to follow suit.

The budget freezes base salaries for all non-unionized public sector management and employees and will freeze wages for unionized workers when collective agreements are renegotiated.

“Grants to universities and municipalities will be adjusted in future years to reflect this expectation,” said New Brunswick finance minister Victor Boudreau.

“It is our intent to implement the wage restraint policy through negotiation; however, if necessary, this government is prepared to introduce legislation limiting the wage increases that can be obtained through collective bargaining negotiation to zero per cent.”

While Boudreau said he’s not asking employers to break collective agreements, he added they can find “other means” to impose “restraint.”

Student organizations were pleased by the continued tuition fee freeze, but disappointed with a budget proposal to limit debt at $26,000 for students who complete their studies within a program’s “established timeline.”

The debt cap is an unpopular move because it will let debt load creep too high, will not improve affordability, and ignores students who have legitimate reasons for taking extra time to complete their degrees, said Graham Cox, a CFS spokesperson.

“Tuition fees are so high that thousands of students are forced to work part-time and full-time jobs just to make ends meet. In fact, these students are in greater need of financial assistance than those who don’t work a day during the course of their studies,” he said.

Ontario

In Ontario, students and academic staff hope modest increases to core operating grants in addition to increases to campus infrastructure will help put an end to dire warnings by university admin­istrators about the need to eliminate courses and increase class sizes.

“The sense of panic created by many university presidents over the past few months created unfortunate and completely unnecessary anxiety among students, faculty, librarians and staff,” said Brian Brown, president of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations.

Highlights of the province’s March 26 budget include a one-time injec­tion of $150 million to partially off-set enrollment pressures; $780 million over two years in provincial contributions to cost-shared post-secondary education infrastructure funding; and significant changes in pension solvency extensions which should address pension deficits.

Brown said he hopes university presidents will now commit to maintaining programs and hiring new academic staff.

Shelley Melanson, chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Student for Ontario, said while students were pleased the budget reflected a number of important investment priorities, they remain worried that accessibility will be undermined by projected tuition fee increases. CFS had called on the government to invest in education’s “Big Three” — access, quality and infrastructure.

“We need to turn our attention to reducing tuition fees and providing new educational opportunities for Ontario’s students,” Melanson said.

Manitoba

In Manitoba, just one week after the provincial NDP budget provided a six per cent increase in base operating grants and strategic program investments for colleges and universities, the Commission on Tuition Fees and Ac­cessibility released its report recommending tuition fee increases.

Commissioner Ben Levin, who has opposed tuition fee freezes in the past, was given a year to research the effects of tuition fees on accessibility, and to provide a report to the province to help guide its decision on the tuition fee freeze, as well as budgetary allocations to post-secondary education.

“Provinces like Newfoundland, Quebec and New Brunswick have committed to tuition fee freezes in their budget announcements,” said Brandon University student union president Stephen Montague. “Newfoundland goes as far as to eliminate student loan interest rates altogether, but unfortunately there is a lack of vision in Manitoba.

“Dr. Levin’s report under appreciates the effects of tuition on accessibility.”

The report’s recommendations include a proposed 5 per cent per year tuition fee increase, allowing for a double-digit fee increase over the duration of a degree that will surely see student debt levels rise.

Also included in the report are new targeted access grants and low-income bursaries to students, as well as new programs to encour­age non-traditional students to pursue post-secondary studies in Manitoba.

“While these new access initiatives are certainly welcome, allowing tuition fees to increase directly undermines the value of these new programs and directly undermines already limited federal funding sources for Aboriginal students,” David Jacks, Manitoba chair of the CFS, said in a statement.

Saskatchewan

Despite being the only pro­vince in the country to project a surplus this year, Saskat­che­wan’s new provincial budget ended the post-secondary tuition fee freeze imple­mented in 2005. The government claims the $23.5 million provided to universities in last month’s budget will offset costs and limit tuition increases. It also points to guidelines calling on universities to limit tuition increases to an average of three per cent, but the guidelines aren’t binding and tuition fees could rise by more than this number.