By: Yasmin Hassan, Staff Writer
Editor’s note: As an independent student society, The Peak Publications Society would financially benefit from the Vote for Student Life referendum and non-editorial staff members are campaigning for it. We’ve taken steps to prevent conflict of interest from affecting our reporting of this issue, such as ensuring the writer and editors of this piece are not involved in or informed by the campaign. The Peak remains committed to objectivity and representing diverse student perspectives on issues that affect students. We invite students to share their perspectives by emailing [email protected] for future coverage.
From February 10, the Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS) executive and general committee elections campaign period is active. With this period of the elections comes the Vote for Student Life referendum, which proposes an increase in student fees to go towards a number of independent student societies and the SFSS health and dental plan. The referendum aims to establish a student fee “increase of $1.50 per full-time student and $0.75 per part-time student each semester for four independent student societies,” along with $12 and $6 respectively towards SFSS membership for health and dental. This makes the total proposed increase $18 for full-time students and $9 for part-time students.
“The SFSS, Embark Sustainability, Simon Fraser Public Interest Research Group (SFPIRG), The Peak, and CJSF Radio are all funded by relatively small fee levies voted on and approved by SFU students,” states the referendum. These fees, which haven’t been adjusted according to inflation in 9–30 years, will also be indexed to inflation annually starting in Fall 2026. Indexing a fee means linking fees to inflation as reported by the BC government and ensuring the cost of running the student groups matches the inflation rate.
Over the years, these student societies have struggled to keep up with rising costs. Inflation has increased by 26% since Embark’s last fee adjustment in 2016, 42% for CJSF since 2008, 48% for the SFSS since 2006, 57% for The Peak since 2003, and 84% for the SFPIRG since 1995.
The student societies state they aim to maintain and expand “the quality and quantity of programming, services, and resources.” Students can cast their votes for the levy increase and SFSS elections from February 27–28 via a link sent to their SFU emails.
How the increase will affect student groups
The Peak interviewed Noëll Cousins, director of engagement at SFPIRG, to find out more. SFPIRG is a student organization “dedicated to social and environmental justice.” Their “areas of work include education, action, research, and community-building.” Cousins explained how an increase in their funds would support more student employment opportunities like their work-study program or the “People’s University” political education project, and bringing back their Antithesis magazine. Cousins said the increase would also help SFPIRG platform students’ work and improve their student events by inviting speakers to SFU. Cousins said they want to ensure “folks are able to put food on the table and be able to meet their own needs,” emphasizing the importance of living wage jobs that develop students’ skills. According to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives BC, one–third of BC workers make below a living wage.
“Instead of just surviving, there’s actually space and room to really thrive and offer students [ . . . ] what it is they want and ask for.” — Noëll Cousins, director of engagement, SFPIRG
She also noted that the increase would put SFPIRG “in a position where [they’re] moving with the times in a specific way, and don’t have to be in this existential fear or crisis all the time” around operating. “Instead of just surviving, there’s actually space and room to really thrive and offer students and provide back to students what it is they want and ask for.”
Why the health and dental plan is increasing
The Peak attended the biweekly SFSS Council meeting on January 29. “The SFSS health and dental plan ranks one of the lowest in coverage among other comparable student societies across the province and the country,” said Sam Killawee, SFSS vice-president internal and organizational development. The Peak verified this. “85% of certified SFSS members have expressed interest in improving essential benefits under the health and dental plan.”
The Peak interviewed Killawee for more information. He explained that the last successful referendum to increase the health and dental plan fee was in 2017, leading to a 5% fee increase or decrease policy in any given year. This means the SFSS could increase or decrease the health and dental fee at their discretion to “allow them more flexibility to match fee changes.” In 2020, the SFSS pivoted to a fully insured model, decreasing the risk of “massive fluctuations in healthcare planning costs.” However, the 5% increase policy expired in 2022 and has never been used since. In the 2024/25 SFSS term, the SFSS Board of Directors and Council decided to cut student services as they “couldn’t increase fees to the level that the insurance provider was now charging.” Killawee said this was “not something any of us [at the SFSS] wanted to do.” He added, “Rates of the plan have gone up significantly in recent years, particularly around the dental program.”
To ensure the plan’s future, the referendum would increase both the basic and enhanced care plans by $97, aiming to restore coverage and expand benefits. For full-year coverage, the enhanced plan would increase from $267.08 to $364.08, and the basic plan from $207.40 to $304.40.
How students can opt-out
As the fee increase may be challenging or undesirable for some, students have the option to opt out. As for the health and dental plans, “Students will retain the option to choose a lower level of coverage at a lower cost” or opt out entirely.
Methods of opting out vary and can be found linked here on pages six and seven. Students can learn more about the independent student societies by visiting their respective websites.
The Peak will continue to cover the SFSS election.
