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FREDERICTON (CUP) — In January, New Brunswick will become the province with the highest tuition rate paid by students.

This revelation comes on the heels of an announcement by the Ontario government that they will introduce a tax credit for Ontario students studying at Ontario post-secondary institutions. Beginning in January, students whose parents make less than $160,000 annually will receive a tuition credit of $1,600. The Ontario government estimates that this will affect about 86 per cent of its post-secondary students.

“It’s essentially acting as a sort of grant,” said Jordan Thompson, president of the University of New Brunswick Student Union. “It doesn’t reduce the tuition fee, but for students in Ontario, it reduces the amount of tuition paid.”

According to Statistics Canada, Ontario has an average tuition rate of $6,640 per year. The new tax credit will bring the tuition for most students below the New Brunswick average tuition rate of $5,853 per year.

“What that means is that we’re still technically second in tuition, but there’s more financial aid provided to students in Ontario from their government,” explained Thompson.

Students at New Brunswick universities and colleges are familiar with high tuition. Tuition rates have been more than $5,000 per year for the past five years, according to Statistics Canada. The previous Liberal government, which was in power from 2006–10, put a cap on tuition, which was to last five years.

The Conservative government, which was elected on Sept. 27, 2010, removed that cap and raised tuition by $200 for the 2011–12 academic year. The new government also reinstated parental contributions for student loan assessments, a decision which affected many students whose parents make good money on paper but don’t have any money set aside for their child’s tuition.

Martine Coulombe, minister of post-secondary education, training and labour said in a phone interview with the Brunswickan that a schedule for tuition fees for the next four years will be released in 2012. Coulombe required that a list of interview questions be sent prior to the interview.

“The schedule will allow students to better budget their studies,” she said. “I think it is very important.”

Coulombe said that the ministry has been working with New Brunswick’s publicly-funded universities to develop a four-year funding model that will “respond to the priorities of the institutions and the priorities also of our students and our province.”

When asked about what the priorities of the institutions were, Coulombe said “a four-year funding model for universities, including allowing the province to understand the fiscal pressure of our universities.”

Coulombe added that a funding agreement would be discussed with post-secondary institutions before a decision is made.

On Nov. 19, Coulombe and representatives of the ministry of post-secondary education, training and labour held a meeting to discuss the matter of tuition and funding for universities.

No student representatives from any New Brunswick post-secondary institution attended.

“We weren’t invited. It was a closed-door meeting,” Thompson said, who added that the UNB Student Union will continue to lobby to get in on such meetings.

“We always work with our students," Coulombe said, when asked by the Brunswickan why no students were invited to this meeting. "We met them several times and we still have meetings with them this year. We have another meeting scheduled on Jan. 6, 2012, and we will continue to discuss with our students.”

Despite not being invited to the government meeting, Thompson and his colleagues at the UNB Student Union have been meeting with UNB president Eddy Campbell to discuss the tuition matter.

“The student leaders that I have talked to are clever, highly motivated, and understand these issues in a deep way,” Campbell told the Brunswickan over the phone. “They feel that it’s not a good thing for our province to have the highest cost of tuition in Canada.”

Thompson said the stigma of having Canada’s highest tuition rates will have a negative impact on New Brunswick. He said the high tuition rate might cause an out-migration of students to cheaper universities in other parts of the country, which could result in low enrolment numbers at post-secondary institutions in New Brunswick.

Campbell, however, said that he feels that UNB’s programs are among the best in the country, and its reputation is an attraction for students.

“The enrolment this fall increased for the first time since 2004–05, and since we do have relatively high tuition fees, that has meant that we have a small increase in revenue,” he said. “Alas, that means that since our expenses continue to increase more than our revenue, we must continue to make cuts across the university.”

One recent cut at UNB was the restructuring of the engineering department. An email was sent out in October to the students, staff and faculty in the engineering department about the need for budget cuts, in light of a tense financial situation. It was ultimately decided to suspend enrolment in the department of computer engineering.

When asked by the Brunswickan if the price of tuition is fitting with the quality of education at UNB, Campbell said that the university works “extremely hard, even in difficult financial times, to maintain the quality of our programs and to look after our students.”

Campbell added that the university is making cuts in light of a strategic plan.

“I have a great deal of sympathy for the situation of students trying to make it in school,” he said. “It seems that the costs are going up, and in fact, last year, the cost did go up.”

Campbell added that students may find themselves in a similar situation this year, as the financial situation of New Brunswick has not gotten much better.

Coulombe said that the $200 tuition increase for this academic year was a reasonable one.

“Like everything else, the cost of education has risen. It’s a fact of life. We cannot control that,” she said.

Thompson said that the New Brunswick Student Alliance is lobbying the government for a six per cent increase in operating grants for publicly funded universities and a tuition and ancillary fee freezes.

“The likelihood of that has yet to be seen,” Thompson said. “One of the concerns is that the government is being somewhat quiet as to what they can commit to.”

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