A group of around 50 post-secondary students braved the frigid temperatures on Friday as they rallied in front of the provincial building at Tom Davies Square in protest of Premier Doug Ford's OSAP (Ontario Student Assistance Program) cuts.
Last week, the Ford government announced new payment changes and funding for post-secondary education in Ontario. Getting rid of the free tuition grants and replacing them with 10 per cent off tuition was one of a number of changes that will impact students for the upcoming year. The Ontario government is also eliminating a Liberal initiative which afforded free tuition for students from low income families.
Changes to OSAP will see students needing to have a net family income under $140,000 a year to qualify, while also eliminating the six-month grace period on interest, and changing when independent students qualify.
The message from the group that rallied on Friday afternoon at Tom Davies Square was loud and clear - that they are not taking these changes laying down and will be fighting for their education.
Despite their message and fighting spirit however, students by and large are feeling fearful and uncertain of what these cuts will mean to them and their peers.
"I'm actually really terrified for my education," said Christine Nielsen, a first-year social work student at Laurentian. "I think education should be for everyone, rich or poor. I'm on OSAP and I was terrified as soon as Ford was elected — this was my first thought and I knew it was going to happen."
Nielsen explained that she is already starting to plan for the future and figure out what her options are to complete her education.
"I don't know what I'm going to do, I might have to take out a line of credit ... it's scary," she said. "I think most people who are on OSAP are very terrified right now."
Members of Laurentian's student unions were in attendance Friday afternoon as well, including Tommi-Lee Gauthier, who heads up the Laurentian University Students General Association (SGA).
"OSAP funding has changed extraordinarily and students are not ok with it. The six-month grace period will no longer be interest free so all of that will be sitting there incurring interest while we're trying to find a job," said Gauthier, who is in her sixth year at Laurentian.
"My first year of university I didn't have a job and it caused me a lot of anxiety knowing the debt was piling up and I wasn't doing anything to contribute. I started working and that's distracted me from my education, as a result of that and my family situation it's taken me longer to finish and now with the six-month grace period gone, it's scary as hell. The amount I have to pay back for OSAP will be on par with what I'm paying for rent and that's terrifying."
The students were joined at the rally by Sudbury MPP Jamie West, who called Ford's 10-per-cent reduction in tuiton, "a cut to the school's funding disguised as a good thing."
"What they're really doing is taking away 10 per cent of the funding the colleges and universities receive from the government," said West.
"As a result, they're going to be under-funded. That's going to affect classroom sizes, that's going to affect faculty amounts, and what you get as students of the school. This is not a good thing, especially because in Ontario, our post-secondary schools are the lowest funded across Canada and our students have the highest debt levels."
West committed to fighting on behalf of the city's post-secondary students and commended them for not standing idly by while cuts are being made.
"I want you to know that as New Democrats and as the opposition, we are fighting for you and with you," said West. "Your voices here today are what give us the power to fight back. We've seen this in the past with the green belt attack, with the sex-ed cuts, it's the people in the streets, it's the voters who say 'I'm not accepting this, I'm standing up to it'."
