Letter to the Editor of the Sudbury Star

We're No. One!

Sir/Madam,

I am quite surprised that you chose not to report on the Stats Canada report released yesterday stating Ontario's tuition fees are now the highest in the country. We also boast the lowest faculty to student ratio.

On the same day that this report was released the Laurentian University Senate voted overwhelming in support to endorse the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario campaign to 'Drop Fees for a Poverty-Free Ontario', making them the only University to do so. In addition, Sudbury city council was the first municipality in Ontario to endorse the campaign and have been followed by the municipal councils of Markstay-Warren, St. Charles, Northeastern Manitoulin & the Islands, Iroquois Falls and Hearst. This stands as a testament to how the rising cost of education disproportionately affects the north.

On November the fifth Laurentian Students will congregate at the Great Hall cul-de-sac on campus at 14h00 to join other students, workers and concerned citizens at Bell Park at 14h30 where they will collectively stage a march to raise awareness of the growing in accessibility of post-secondary education to working families.

With 70% of new jobs requiring some form of post-secondary education, and with record unemployment in Northern Ontario and with 1.3 million Ontarians currently living in poverty we need an education system that is accessible to all.

Kindly,
Rafiq Rahemtulla

Letter to the Editor of the Sudbury Star

Rate dips, still among worst – Its Time to Drop Fees!

Sir/Madam,

With Sudbury boasting the third worst unemployment rate in the country it comes as no surprise that Sudbury City Council was the first municipal council in the province to endorse the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario campaign to ‘Drop Fees for a Poverty-Free Ontario’.

Sadly, the statistics you report do not include over 3,000 USW 6500 members currently on strike nor does it take it to account the disproportionate distribution of unemployment amongst young people, aboriginal people, racialised people and other marginalized groups where these numbers can be twice as high.

With an estimated 70% of new jobs requiring some form of post-secondary education. And with Ontario boasting the second highest university tuition fees in the country that have increased annually between 4.5% and 8% it also comes as no surprise that Ontario has gone from a have to a have-not province by putting post-secondary education out of reach for many.

A student's family income is directly related to the probability that they will attend a post-secondary institution. I am deeply concerned what this means for young people who are and will be graduating from high school during the worst recession since the Great Depression. Universities all across the province are already reporting record numbers of financial aid applications. At the same time, Laurentian University had to slash its bursaries by $300,000 for this year and levy a tax on donations to subsidise its operations budget due to chronic underfunding. With more and more applicants for less and less bursary money students simply cannot afford to go to school anymore without incurring mortgage-sized loans.

A student’s geographic distance from a university is also directly related to the probability that they will attend a university. In the north distance is a real barrier to education and in May the Ontario government announced that it was eliminating the Distance Education Grant. This is why it comes as no surprise that many Northern communities, like Markstay-Warren, St Charles and Northeastern Manitoulin and the Islands and most recently Hearst, have also endorsed the campaign to ‘Drop Fees for a Poverty-Free Ontario’.

I encourage your readers to join students, workers and concerned citizens on November 5th at 2:30pm at Bell Park to march in solidarity for a more accessible and better funded post-secondary education system. Only by increasing access to the great social equalizer, education, to all can the cycle of poverty be broken and can Ontario return to productivity and prosperity.

Rafiq Rahemtulla
Vice President
Laurentian University Graduate Students’ Association | l’Association des étudiantes et étudiants aux études supérieures de ‘Université Laurentienne
Local 110, Canadian Federation of Students