Thousands sign petition opposing cuts to post-secondary education in New Brunswick

An online petition calling on the Government of New Brunswick to reverse course on plans to cut tens of millions of dollars from the post-secondary budget has garnered thousands of signatures within just a few days.

The provincial government recently distributed a two-page document to the presidents of New Brunswick’s universities and colleges stating that “target budgetary reductions” would reach $35-$50 million.

In response, Liam MacDougall and Dylan Laforest, students and co-chairs of the NB Young Greens, launched an online petition on Monday. It had gathered more than 6,200 signatures by Friday morning.

“There’s people from all kinds of backgrounds signing, not just post-secondary students, but there’s also parents, high school students, concerned citizens,” MacDougall told the NB Media Co-op.

“They realize how important post-secondary education is for the current students and also for the future of the province.”

MacDougall, 19, ran for the Green Party in recent provincial and federal elections. He is a second-year student in political science, sustainability and environmental studies at St. Thomas University.

The controversial government document suggested that STU could merge with the University of New Brunswick and that Mount Allison University could be privatized.

Liberal Premier Susan Holt later walked back those eyebrow-raising proposals. “We aren’t closing or privatizing [post-secondary education] in NB,” she said in a comment on social media.

STU’s president also circulated a notice on Wednesday evening saying that the provincial government “has no plans to close or merge St. Thomas University,” citing a conversation with the Premier.

A spokesperson for Mount Allison said the university “is aware that Premier Holt has indicated on social media that privatization of Mount Allison University is not being considered. We appreciate this.”

The spokesperson added: “Mount Allison has reached out to Premier Holt, and we continue to wait for a response.”

The latest developments show that public pressure is having an effect, MacDougall said.

However, he suggested that “radical” proposals such as dissolving STU or privatizing Mount Allison serve to distract from the larger problem of drastic cuts to post-secondary education.

Those cuts could represent roughly 10 per cent of the $543 million budget for Post-Secondary Education this fiscal year.

“I think it’s a big slap in the face to students in the province,” MacDougall said of the cuts. “I mean, a lot of universities are really struggling financially. They’ve already had to cut back services and courses and these cuts would only exacerbate that problem further.”

For example, if a 10 per cent reduction in grants to post-secondary institutions were accompanied by a tuition freeze — one of the suggestions in the document — those institutions would face an increasingly tough financial situation, he said.

The austerity measures follow a recent fiscal update from the province projecting a $1.3 billion deficit, more than double the previously expected shortfall.

The growing deficit is due to lower-than-expected revenues “driven largely by revenue reductions in corporate income tax, personal income tax and harmonized sales tax,” and higher-than-expected expenses “in critical areas of health care and social development,” according to the Department of Finance.

Asked about those circumstances, MacDougall pointed to news that Opportunities New Brunswick — a provincial Crown corporation — just last week announced conditional tariff relief worth $45 million over three years for Irving Paper Ltd., part of the billionaire-owned J.D. Irving conglomerate.

He also noted research from the conservative Fraser Institute think tank indicating that New Brunswick spends more than $100 million annually on corporate subsidies. “This deficit is also fueling a bunch of existing corporate subsidies,” he said.

Provincial funding to New Brunswick’s public universities peaked in 1979-80 at about 82 per cent of total operating costs, a figure that declined to 56 per cent by 2019-20, according to the Federation of New Brunswick Faculty Associations.

The Department of Post-Secondary Education and the Office of the Premier didn’t respond to a request for comment by publication time.

David Gordon Koch is a journalist with the NB Media Co-op. This reporting has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada, via the Local Journalism Initiative.