Brian Decker
Executive Editor
Ontarians may be headed back to the polls this spring.
The Liberal provincial minority government tabled its proposed budget Tuesday, but Opposition and Progressive Conservative party Leader Tim Hudak says his party will not support the budget, putting Andrea Horwath’s New Democratic Party in a position to decide whether the budget is voted down.
The budget aims to slash the province’s $15.3 billion deficit by freezing wages at hospitals, universities, colleges and on other public sector employees. If it is defeated, an election could be called as early as May.
“We are making the right choices to ensure that Ontario families are receiving the best possible services and the best value for tax dollars,” said Minister of Finance Dwight Duncan. “All of us have a role to play in balancing the budget.”
The budget aims to save $17.7 billion over the next three years while increasing revenues by $4.4 billion without tax increases. But opponents of the legislation say it’s leaving too many groups out of the equation.
“With students having huge debt and not a lot of job prospects coming out of school, it’s concerning that there’s nothing in this budget for job creation,” said Hamilton Mountain MPP Monique Taylor.
“The budget’s falling short on job creation and health care. There’s nothing in to help everyday families and make life easier for them,” said Taylor. “That’s a serious problem.”
Horwath said that her party’s MPPs will be meeting with constituents and having a “serious talk” this week over whether to support the budget.
“We’re not ready to make that decision yet,” said Taylor. “We won’t know that until after our next caucus meeting.”
Some of the features of the budget include austerity toward pensions for current public sector employees, including greater required contributions and a reduction in future benefits, as well as a freeze on scheduled drops in corporate income taxes and the Business Education tax.
The budget comes on the heels of February’s Drummond Report, which called for numerous measures to take place in order to quickly tackle the deficit.
However, the Liberals left a number of the report’s recommendations out of the budget, including a plan to cancel the recent 30 per cent tuition grant for university students.
“The government’s commitment to continue funding enrolment growth and the tuition grant are critical to creating a more accessible and affordable post-secondary education system,” said Sean Madden, President of the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA), a provincial student lobbying group.
Madden said, however, that postsecondary education still needs to be a bigger priority for the McGuinty Liberals.
“With this Budget, our universities will continue to operate with the least per-student funding and highest tuition fees of any province, while teaching quality and student success remain pressing issues,” he said.
Brian Decker and Sam Colbert
Executive Editor and Managing Editor
General Assembly (GA) has total control of the McMaster Students Union (MSU). It can recall presidents, change student fees and fundamentally repurpose the MSU and its services in whatever manner its attendees see fit.
That is, as long as 601 people show up.
That number represents three per cent of the more than 20,000 full-time undergraduates at McMaster, which is the required percentage to reach quorum – the level at which votes are binding on the MSU. Without sufficient attendance, the Assembly’s motions are powerless.
This year’s General Assembly will take place on March 28 and has a chance to break an unfortunate trend. Quorum hasn’t been reached since 1995, with attendance suffering since and bottoming out with a 25-person gathering in 2008.
“We’ve had some pretty substantial issues in the past couple of years that have gotten a lot of people out and we still haven’t reach quorum,” said MSU speaker, Jeff Wyngaarden, who will chair the event.
With a new marketing campaign and a few big-ticket motions already on the table, there’s a modicum of optimism around GA this year. The new campaign, which include signs advertising only “the601.ca,” has been part of a collaboration between Campus Events, Underground Media & Design, the MSU’s student life coordinator Michael Wooder and president Matthew Dillon-Leitch, among others.
“I think when you say ‘General Assembly’ – when the MSU throws its logo on different things – people sort of shut down and ignore it,” said Dillon-Leitch, who is hoping this year’s GA will be different than in the past 17 years.
“You have to make things a little different, a little more interesting, because the impact is really what’s important,” he said.
“It holds the Board and the SRA (Student Representative Assembly) accountable,” said Wyngaarden. “This is really the opportunity to
make sure they’re doing what you want them to be doing, and also to bring forward projects that aren’t on the table that you want to see happen.”
As of Wednesday night, Wyngaarden had received four motions for this year’s Assembly – the first two moved by Dillon-Leitch. The first would scrap the MacPass, putting in its place a flat $120 fee for all incoming first-year students whether they attend Welcome Week or not, subsequently increasing funding for the Week overall.
Second is a proposal for a five-dollar charge to all full-time undergraduate students for an annual, Roy Joyce Stadium-sized concert. With the additional funds, Campus Events could bring in a major act and accommodate more than 5,000 students for a free show.
The third and fourth motions are both for mandated MSU lobbying efforts, one for a grocery store in MUSC to replace Travel Cuts and the other for a reduction in tuition, along with additional grants for students and an increase in provincial funding for universities.
Motions passed at GA have the same power as those in referenda, which typically accompany the MSU’s presidential elections. Through GA, students can do things the SRA can’t do on its own – make fee changes, for example.
The MSU, which is distinct from the University and operates under a multi-million-dollar annual budget, charges four to five hundred dollars to each student yearly. With that money, it supports a governance structure, businesses and a number of services (including the Silhouette).
Wednesday’s event will run from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. in Burridge Gym. It is expected that more motions will come forward before the event.
Aware of the Students Union’s annual struggle to reach quorum for the Assembly, Dillon-Leitch kept his answer short when asked if he thought this year’s GA would draw enough people.
“I sure hope so,” he said.
Brian Decker
Executive Editor
The McMaster Students Union Elections Committee did not receive any formal complaints about the 2012 presidential election, according to Chief Returning Officer Steven Thompson.
“We make a technical complaint system available so anyone can say if they think there’s anything wrong with the system. We didn’t get any official complaints this year,” said Thompson.
Complaints, which can be lodged within 48 hours of the election results, can be sent to request a recount or dispute the election’s results.
The absence of complaints comes despite candidate Alex Ramirez’s claim that the vote was “manipulated,” and that it was “literally impossible” that he received only the 704 first-place votes he tallied. Ramirez posted the claim as a blog entry on his campaign website and Facebook page.
Ramirez finished fifth in the election and was eliminated in the first round of voting.
“Far too many things happened during the campaign to have only generated 704 first place votes, and to have come in dead last,” said Ramirez on his blog, proceeding to list a number of circumstances during the campaign period that he believed indicated more students sending their votes his way.
Aside from anecdotes and some figures – the 5,200 pamphlets his team circulated and the 2,700 web page visits to his site on the two voting days – Ramirez did not list any evidence to explain how the vote would have been manipulated.
The 2012 vote was run by the website SimplyVoting.com, which Thompson said has no access other than the accumulation and automatic calculation of votes.
A voting receipt that allows students to double check their ballot is also available on the site. Students can log in, check their ballot receipt and download a spreadsheet of the election results.
One possible source of contention over the vote’s result may have come from the timing of the vote’s switch to online-only. The system was changed from paper balloting to online on Jan. 20, one day after the all-candidates meeting and the announcement of the eligible candidates.
Additionally, Thompson said, candidates were notified of the possible switch to exclusively online voting at and prior to the all-candidates meeting, at which time the switch was contingent upon receiving permission from the Registrar’s office.
“It was unfortunate we had to do it sort of last-minute, but it was a choice between that and not going online when we had the ability to,” said Thompson
This year’s MSU presidential election saw a 33.4 per cent voter turnout – the highest since 1998 – and an all-time gross record with a total of 6,703 student votes.
Brian Decker
Executive Editor
The Ontario Liberals’ plan to give a 30 per cent discount on tuition may end up costing some students a little bit more.
The Liberals’ election promise, which offered a 30 per cent decrease in the cost of tuition to students from households earning less than $160,000 per year, may be followed by a rise in the overall cost of tuition starting next year.
The current framework that dictates tuition fees expires at the end of the 2011/12 school year.
“Universities can’t really withstand having no new revenue, because they’re going to spend $420 million on this new grant,” said Sam Andrey, Executive Director of the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance.
Whether tuition increases at the current rate of five per cent per year is still to be determined.
Andrey said OUSA is advocating for a lower increase rate, but that no increase at all is unlikely.
“We know changing [the tuition increase rate] to something lower is on the table. That’s something we’re going to be advocating for.”
“With the 30 per cent reduction, I think there is a very low appetite on the part of the government to compensate an outright freeze.”
The plan to offer students a tuition discount is set to take place in January, but much of the details of how it will be implemented and distributed is currently pending confirmation.
Residents of Ontario in full-time, first entry programs (excluding law, medicine and graduate programs) will be eligible to apply for a tuition break for the winter semester, but the process of how and where students apply has not yet been determined.
Andrey said for the winter 2012 semester only, approved students will likely receive a cheque equivalent to 30 per cent of tuition, and that a true 30 per cent discount on tuition won’t start until 2012.
“In all likelihood, it will be something like an $800 cheque for most students,” said Alvin Tejdo, OUSA’s Director of Communications, of the 30 per cent discount in January.
Tejdo said many students could potentially be caught unaware of the cheque’s availability. “It’s going to be really important to tell people to apply for it,” he said.
The process by which students’ financial means are approved – determining whether their household earns less than $160,000 – is yet to be established.
The slow implementation of the remaining details is partially due to the change in governing officials. After the Oct. 8 election, Glen Murray became the new Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, replacing John Milloy. There are also new education critics to be appointed in the opposition.
Andrey said other changes coming to Ontario campuses in the coming year include increasing the availability of mental health and the construction of three new campuses in the Greater Toronto Area, with the site still to be determined.
