Students protest rising tuition fees

University students took their concerns over rising tuition costs to the streets Wednesday outside of the provincial student loans office.

With signs and bullhorns, about 25 students chanted "drop debt" and "lower fees" outside of the Ontario Student Assistance Program office on Red River Road, saying that Ontario students have the highest tuition rates in the country.

They're right.

According to figures obtained through Statistics Canada, the average undergraduate student pays $5,138 a year in tuition nationwide. That's up $738 over the 2006-07 school year. However, in Ontario students are paying an average of $6,307 this year, $1,152 more than 2006-07. Quebec undergrads have it the best, paying slightly more than $2,400 in annual tuition fees.

Lakehead University Student Union Program president Mike Snoddon said the rally coincides with the National Day of Student Action.

"We’re calling on the government of Ontario to fix their flawed program and to make sure that education is an affordable, accessible and inclusive program and that we can actually have the best education in all the country. It just takes some critical thinking and student-centred thinking to do that," Snoddon said.

Snoddon said while Lakehead University tuition is still relatively low in the province, some students are still having to drop out due to the cost of post-secondary education. Snoddon said tuition rates shouldn’t be going up just because the government is underfunding its students.

"Last year inflation went down and our tuition still went up 5.5 per cent," he said.


MPP Michael Gravelle (Lib., Thunder Bay-Superior North) met briefly with the protesters on Wednesday. Gravelle said while he hopes to have a meeting with Snoddon and other student leaders, he stands by the McGuinty government’s post-secondary record, adding Ontario’s education system is one of the best in the world.

"Our goal is to work with them to continue to find ways to be as helpful as we can in terms of the student loans program," Gravelle said. "But we always know there’s more work to be done."