Madam Speaker, as the post-secondary education critic for the NDP I have tried to do my best to press the federal government on concerns about post-secondary education and the crisis we are facing.
In question period about a week ago I questioned the government about the skyrocketing tuition fees and deregulation which is causing a two tier educational system in Canada. I pointed out to the government that the Americanization and the privatization of post-secondary education is directly as a result of the gutting of federal funding.
I was shocked by the response from the Secretary of State for Children and Youth, who suggested I speak to my colleagues in the Government of British Columbia to deal with the issue of skyrocketing tuition fees. I was shocked at this response because I could not believe a government minister was not aware, especially the Secretary of State for Children and Youth, that in the province of British Columbia we have had a tuition freeze not for one year, not for two years but for three years.
The B.C. government introduced legislation very recently that will continue the tuition freeze until 1999. The government of B.C. is doing this to ensure that post-secondary education is affordable and accessible. The freeze will include tuition fees for graduate, undergraduate, career, technical, vocational and developmental programs. It also freezes mandatory ancillary fees that could increase the cost of tuition, including such items as library registration or laboratory fees.
I point this out because I really find it appalling that the federal government apparently has not a clue what is going on in British Columbia and the leadership that has been taken to ensure that post-secondary education is still accessible. This tuition freeze will ensure tuition fees of B.C. are among the lowest in Canada.
In other provinces such as Ontario tuition fees have increased by 20% in recent years and enrolment has declined. But B.C. has increased funding to post-secondary education despite the massive cutbacks by the federal government, a 20% increase, $39 million for this year alone. Even today in British Columbia the government announced that it is removing tuition fees completely for adult basic education.
I want to set the record straight and call on the government to issue an apology to the B.C. government in alleging and charging that tuition fees in B.C. are skyrocketing. That is the case elsewhere in Canada as a result of the gutting of funds from post-secondary education and that is something that is of huge concern to all of us, particularly to students who are facing a massive debtload. Let us get the facts straight here. I would like to see in the government response today and in future responses government members acknowledging the leadership that B.C. has taken to ensure that post-secondary education is accessible to students.
We are calling on the federal government to demonstrate and to show that same kind of leadership across the country by instituting a national freeze on tuition fees and instituting a national program of grants for students in Canada.