TORONTO, April 30, 2014 /CNW/ - Representatives of the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario will be available to comment on the 2014 Ontario Budget immediately following its release on Thursday, May 1, 2014.
Students presented a number of recommendations to government for the upcoming provincial budget including reducing tuition fees by 30 per cent for all students, including a cost-neutral proposal to reduce tuition fees by 16 per cent in 2014-15. Students' recommendations can be viewed here.
STUDENTS RESPOND TO 2014 ONTARIO BUDGET:
| DATE: | Thursday, May 1, 2014 | |
| TIME: | 4:00 p.m. | |
| PLACE: | Queen's Park | |
| WHO: | Alastair Woods, Chairperson: 647-378-8942 | |
| Anna Goldfinch (Bilingual), Ontario Representative: 647-339-4070 | ||
JUST THE FACTS:
- At $7,259 for undergraduate and $8,456 for graduate students, tuition fees in Ontario are the highest in Canada. An undergraduate student in Ontario making minimum wage would have to work 708 hours, or almost 18 weeks full-time to cover tuition fees, 10 weeks more than students 30 years ago.
- Over the past 15 years, the average debt for a student with public and private loans has increased by 460 per cent, from $8,000 to $37,000. Collectively, students in Canada owe $15 billion to the federal government and Ontario students owe $2.6 billion to the provincial government.
- Ontario has the lowest per student funding in Canada, 23 per cent below the Canadian average. Public funding now accounts for less than half of university and college operating budgets. At some institutions less than 40 per cent of funding comes from public funding.
The Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario unites more than 350,000 college and university students in all regions of the province.
SOURCE: Canadian Federation of Students - Ontario
Kaley Kennedy, Communications Coordinator, 416-925-3825 (office) or [email protected]
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