Originally Published: 2009-09-06

Shelley Melanson, president of the Canadian Federation of Students of Ontario

Beleaguered by the shortage of summer jobs, increasing debt, and increasingly higher tuition, university students are gearing up for a difficult year. Shelley Melanson, president of the Canadian Federation of Students of Ontario, has already collected thousands of letters asking Premier Dalton McGuinty to intervene. The Federation is organizing a Drop Fees campaign and a protest rally for Nov. 5.
“Ontario is second in Canada for undergraduate tuition fees, and first for graduate courses,” says Melanson. “Ours is one of the most expensive provinces. We’re asking the government to lower university tuition on the one hand, and to increase education funding on the other.”

Why organize a campaign on poverty?

“Considering the huge number of job losses in Ontario, we decided to focus on the importance of training as a method of reducing poverty. There are 1.3 million poor people in the province. With the newly unemployed, we’re expecting that at least 400,000 more people will drop below the poverty line within the next two years. We feel the government has the duty to facilitate access to education to fight this danger.”

By how much is tuition increasing in the province?

“From 20% to 36% over the last four years. It’s too expensive for many. Ontario students, as a whole, have accumulated $1.7 billion of debt under the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP). These numbers don’t take into account private loans or recourse to credit cards.”

So the debt might actually be higher.

“Exactly, and the impact on the economy is very strong. In theory, a student should enter the work force, buy a house, have a family, and use his/her purchasing power to strengthen the economy. But when you load a student up with debt just to get a title that helps him find a job, you’re doing nothing more than worsen the state of the economy.”

How much impact does this year’s slump in summer jobs have?

“Student unemployment during the summer months hit 21%. It’s at the highest level since statistics in this sector have been kept — 1982. The impact on students who save to pay for studies is enormous. Through the Freedom of Information Act, we discovered that at U of T, there’s been an increase of 12% in students applying for OSAP, and a 10% increase at Ryerson – a very significant jump in new students who will potentially have access to credit for the first time. We think it’s a reflection of the very high rate of unemployment and the increasing cost of tuition.”

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