“Borrowing beyond your means is never a wise strategy, yet that is precisely what thousands of BC families are forced to do every year to afford this government’s tuition fee increases,” said Shamus Reid, CFS-BC Chairperson. “The government talks about rejuvenating the workforce and not mortgaging the future, but that is impossible without a strategy to reduce student debt.”

Revenue collected by the BC government from tuition fees has surpassed $1 billion, an increase of 135% since the BC Liberals were elected in 2001. Prior to the budget update’s 14% cut to student aid, BC already ranked dead last among provinces in the provision of non-repayable student aid. The universities and colleges operating grant freeze will make BC’s funding fall behind inflation and enrolment increases.

“While the BC government is asking families to pay more at a time of record-high personal debt and financial uncertainty, it’s also demanding that universities and colleges do more with less,” said Reid.

September 1 also marks the day that BC officially has the lowest minimum wage in Canada. Earlier this summer, Statistics Canada reported that youth unemployment was at the highest level on record.

“Jobs and wages have bottomed out, student aid has been cut, and tuition fees will continue to rise. Provincial government policies have made education a debt sentence,” said Reid.

The Canadian Federation of Students-British Columbia is BC’s provincial student organization, representing 150,000 university and college students at all levels of post-secondary education in BC. It is non-partisan and affiliated with Canada’s largest national student organization, the Canadian Federation of Students.