LONDON – Peggy Sattler (London West) released the following statement in response to reports of provincial funding for postsecondary institutions:
“Does this government understand that we are in a crisis?
“The government has been fully aware of how decades of chronic underfunding, and five years of cuts, have pushed our postsecondary institutions to the brink. Now a rumoured investment is half what the government's own panel of experts have recommended”
“Instead of taking serious action, the government has encouraged unrestrained international student recruitment, enabled bad actors, rewarded donors, and left everyone else out in the cold.
“We should never have gotten to this level of crisis in our colleges and university sector. We need serious solutions to get us out.”
Background
- The Blue Ribbon Panel recommended an urgent $2.5 billion investment over three years as the minimum needed just to keep colleges and universities running. And that was before the international student cap was announced.
- The government's investment is rumored to be $1.2 billion – not nearly enough