The Canadian Federation of Students has organized a National Day of Action on November 2, 2016 to call for universal access to publicly funded education. Tuition fees across Canada have almost quadrupled since the 1990s. During this time, the government’s share of post-secondary education funding has decreased from 80% to below 50%. Students now owe an estimated $28 billion in public and private student loans.
The wrongheaded policy of treating education as a privilege and a commodity instead of a basic human right and an investment in our nation’s future has led to a Canada where many of the vulnerable in our society are excluded from post-secondary education.
Since the mid-1980s, Canada has consistently cut corporate taxes and passed the tax burden of those cuts onto working Canadians through cuts to services and increased user fees such as tuition hikes on university students.
Enough is enough.
The Confederation of Canadian Unions (CCU) fully supports the students of our country and their demands for zero tuition fees. Education must be a public service and not a corporatized commodity. The CCU pledges solidarity with the the Canadian Federation of Students’ National Day of Action.
