The Ontario government’s recent decision to make tuition free for students whose family income is less than $50,000 has many Maritimers wondering whether a similar program could be adopted in our region.
The Ontario government’s plan works like this:
A university student living at home with tuition of $6,100 and a family income of $45,000, would have expenses totaling $12,608. They would qualify for $9,607 in student aid - a grant of $6,860 and a loan of $2,747.
A college student living at home with tuition of $2,768 and a family income of $40,000 would have expenses totaling $8,900. They would qualify for roughly $5,900 in assistance – a $531 loan and a grant worth $5,383.
Lars Osberg is an economics professor at Dalhousie University. He says, in some ways, Nova Scotia is in a better position than Ontario to offer free tuition.
“Past governments in Nova Scotia have focused much more on keeping the budget under control than the Ontario government. The Ontario government is running a very high current deficit and has been increasing the debt to GDP ratio for some time,” says Osberg.
Professor Osberg says it may even be cheaper for the Nova Scotia government to provide grants for free tuition because more of our students are from outside the province – automatically less would be eligible.
“It is true that incomes are lower in Nova Scotia, so a higher fraction of Nova Scotia residents would qualify under a $50,000 limit,” says Osberg. “But that still means there's big savings compared to executing this program in Ontario.”
Kevin Lacey, with The Canadian Taxpayers Federation, says free tuition is not a fiscally responsible decision.
“Adding to the deficit through free tuition is just putting those costs into the future that will need to be paid for by the very students who are getting the benefit,” says Lacey.
Cape Breton University president David Wheeler proposed the idea of free tuition last March.
“It is a matter of choice however, and it certainly would include the federal government,” said Wheeler in 2015.
Many students CTV News spoke with thought free tuition was an excellent plan and were hopeful that Ontario could be a positive case study, others were skeptical.
“As long as it's easy and accessible for students to obtain without all the restrictions that I think are probably associated with it,” says one student.
The Nova Scotia government declined CTV News’ request for an interview, saying the Ontario program was just announced Thursday and they are still in the process of reviewing the details.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Kayla Hounsell
