BC NDP praises Ontario for offering free tuition to low-income students
Posted February 26, 2016 12:50 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – The BC NDP is coming out in support of Ontario’s move to fully fund the education of its poorest students, but isn’t going so far as to suggest it would push for that here.
Right now, it’s a case of watching how this rolls out in Ontario, says to Burnaby-Deer Lake MLA Kathy Corrigan, the official opposition’s advanced education critic.
“It’s early to be saying exactly what we would do, but we have certainly spoken about the importance of needs-based grants in the past,” says Corrigan. “I’m really happy to see Ontario is taking a very serious step to address the issue of affordability.”
But she thinks as a first move, our province should restore a previously cut grant and look for other ways to help out low income students.
“The BC Liberals eliminated need-based grants entirely back in 2004, and they are important, and we’ve spoken about them and supported them in the past,” says Corrigan.
Yesterday, Ontario announced the most generous grant programs in the country, which would fully fund post-secondary education for students with annual family incomes of less than $50,000.
