What does the 2018 Province of Manitoba budget mean for students?

On Monday, March 12,  President Laura Garinger attended the release of Manitoba’s 2018 budget alongside the Canadian Federation of Students-Manitoba.

For the second year in a row, Manitoba students are seeing another year of cuts disguised as increases. There is no new money for students in this budget, and once again, it is the provincial government offloading responsibility on to students and the institutions they attend.

• Operating grants for institutions will decrease by 0.8 % or $5,423,000 across the board
• General Loans and Bursaries will decrease by 97 %
• Funding has been eliminated for Health Professions Financial Assistance

The Pallister government promised financial help to Indigenous students while cutting 1 million dollars to the Access Program, which aims to provide university level education for Northern communities, especially Indigenous folks.

Even though the government believes students will get by with these proposed changes, they have already put students in a precarious situation by passing legislation allowing tuition to increase up to five per cent plus the rate of inflation.

With another year of decreased operational funding to post-secondary institution, universities including UWinnipeg will most likely rely on tuition increases to make up their budget shortfalls.

The only solution the Pallister government has for students is to seek out financial aid to pay for their tuition which will leave students with massive amounts of debt to deal with upon graduation.