By: Niveja Assalaarachchi, News Writer
The BC General Employees Union (BCGEU), which represents over 95,000 workers in the province, began strike action in early September over wage and job condition disputes. Since then, mediation efforts between the provincial government and the union have repeatedly stalled, leaving more than 25,000 workers on job action — and students — in limbo. As of October 26, the BCGEU has reached a tentative agreement with the provincial government, leading to the end of the strike.
The strike impacted several government services, including StudentAidBC, which became inaccessible to students across the province. Many expressed concerns about their inability to pay tuition, housing, and other living expenses.
In early October, Reddit users posted to the r/simonfraser subreddit detailing their difficulties getting their tuition paid through StudentAidBC. The Peak spoke with Alexandria Rocher-Light, a resource environmental management major affected by the strike.
Rocher-Light explained that she recently moved from another province and was building her residency application when the semester started. However, due to the strike, she was unable to access the student aid portal properly and described the situation as very frustrating.
Rocher-Light said that communication with StudentAidBC was poor. When she called the agency, the operators informed her of the strike, but didn’t provide concrete steps to help students like her.
“It’s been really stressful trying to deal with finances and manage school at the same time. I am grateful that I have a low-interest credit card, so it’s not the worst,” she said. “I can get by, I just don’t know how anyone else in my situation would deal with this.” At the time of the interview, Rocher-Light stated that she had not yet reached out to the university regarding the strike, but planned to do so in the near future.
Rocher-Light called on SFU and the province to be mindful of unexpected situations like this for the future: “There’s not a whole lot that can be done by anyone but the institution.”
The provincial government claimed that most post-secondary students in BC have received their funding for the semester, with nearly 50,000 applications being processed as of now. In a statement to The Peak, SFU said they “waived the late fees for the small number of students that we knew were waiting for student loans in October.” SFU also said that they “processed a few emergency loans for students in unique situations.”
