BC Budget adds $25 million to post-secondary funding, elicits criticism

The BC Liberals have emerged with a new budget for this fiscal year. On February 16, the provincial government released the 2016–2017 Budget, a document that pinpoints multiple government sectors that will be impacted in the upcoming fiscal year.

In his speech to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Finance Minister Mike de Jong stated that 2016 is the fourth consecutive year the provincial government is presenting a balanced budget, including a potential $264 million surplus.

The projected budget surplus has been achieved through various means. Some tactics include cutting public spending, such as removing the transportation subsidy for people with disabilities, and increasing costs to taxpayers in a number of ways, including raising MSP premiums for seniors, childless couples, and people making more than $51,000 per year.

While some people will be paying more, many of the top earners will be paying less; the temporary top income tax rate on taxable income over $150,000 has expired after being introduced in 2014.

In an email correspondence with The Peak, Dr. Krishna Pendakur of SFU’s Department of Economics wrote, “roughly speaking, this budget is of apiece with the last 16 years of BC Liberal budgets.

“It is a low-tax, low-expenditure regime, wherein keeping taxes low even at the price of mediocre publicly provided goods and services is thought to be the right choice.”

Post-secondary institutions lie under the umbrella of public services, and so amongst those impacted by budget decisions, students will also be affected.

The provincial government is adding $25 million in funding to the Ministry of Advanced Education in 2016, or two percent from the previous year’s budget, an increase from the previous cuts of 16 million in 2014 and 11 million in 2015. According to the official budget report, however, the majority of the additional funding is meant for continuing to honour wage increase agreements for public sector employees in the Ministry of Advanced Education. Despite this year’s budget increase, it appears to be going less to students and more to administration.

When it comes directly to students, per-student operating grants have been dwindling over the last 15 years, claims the Federation of Post-Secondary Educators of BC. According to Kathleen Yang, VP External for the Simon Fraser Student Society, “operating grants from the provincial government to SFU have also been in decline since 2010.” It is unclear as of yet how much funding SFU will see from the budget’s post-secondary investment plans.

However, the Minister of Advanced Education, Andrew Wilkinson, has a positive outlook on the BC Budget and its intersection with post-secondary institutions.

“The system is actually working very well,” said Wilkinson. “We have, as you know, a two percent cap on tuition growth. We are very comfortable with this cap of two percent growth on tuition, even though the universities and colleges would like it to be significantly more.”

That tuition cap in BC is for domestic students, who pay the fourth-lowest tuition in Canada. However, according to a recent media release from the Alliance of British Columbia Students (ABCS), BC charges the highest interest rate on student loans in the country. What that means for students is that the provincial government earns about $10,000 in interest off the average student loan debt of $35,000.

In the same media release, ACBS chairperson added that on top of this exorbitant interest rate, BC is also the only province to not provide grants on the basis of financial need.

The province is focusing its post-secondary infrastructure budget of $2.5 billion on brand-new buildings rather than upgrading and maintaining pre-existing ones. Some notable additions are a new 123 million dollar campus for Emily Carr University and a 19 million dollar trades facility at Selkirk College in Nelson.

“The 2.5 billion in investments over three years for post-secondary education is going to increase capacity in the long run,” said Dr. Steeve Mongrain, professor in the SFU Department of Economics. “In the short run however, it will have no impact. The current crop of undergraduate students are unlikely to see any benefit.”

When asked about SFU maintenance and upgrades, Wilkinson could not supply any examples of how our school will be aided with this $2.5 billion infrastructure plan, though Mongrain indicated that SFU may see a small amount of funding.

In the wake of Ontario’s recent announcement to offer grants to low-income students that are expected to fully cover the tuition costs of most students, BC’s changes to education funding may, as some critics argue, prove anemic.