Re: Youth will ultimately pay for provincial spending increase
In his letter, Ryan Husk presented a factually incorrect account of Ontario finances. Our government has introduced a three-part plan that makes strategic investments in people, builds modern infrastructure, and supports a dynamic and innovative business climate.
This is a fair, focused, and responsible plan that will allow us to continue to make targeted investments, while maintaining our government’s balanced approach. It will benefit our communities by fostering the conditions to spur growth, create jobs, strengthen services, and help youth and families.
Responsible management is essential at a time when forces outside of our province continue to affect our economy. That is why our government has taken strong measures to reduce spending, which has allowed us to remain ahead of deficit reduction targets for the last four years. We are on track to balance the budget by our deadline of 2017-18, and last year, for the first time since 1996, spending fell from the previous fiscal year. We were able to achieve these results while protecting—and often improving—critical services like health care and education.
Our government will continue to invest in our people. We want to prepare them for the economy of today and tomorrow.
For example, we will continue to provide the 30 per cent off tuition grant that assists 200,000 students each year, helping them access the education they will need to compete in the 21st century. We will help 30,000 young people get their first job through our Youth Jobs Strategy, which has already helped over 3,000 youth find jobs since it began in September 2013.
We are committed to helping students get the education and training they need—help based on the ability to learn, not the ability to pay. Ontario has one of the most generous student financial aid programs in Canada, and last year we invested $1 billion in student grants and loans.
Our plan also supports building modern infrastructure. We are committed to improving university and college infrastructure to provide the best possible environment to learn and succeed.
We recently invested $26.25 million to support the Waterfront Project at Carleton University, providing additional space for 1,600 students. This project included the brand new Canal and River buildings. We also invested over $16 million in the expansion and renovation of MacOdrum Library, and provided $5 million to renew the laboratories at the Steacie Building for Chemistry.
To help students overcome challenges as they transition and succeed in their post-secondary studies, our government recently provided $640,000 to Carleton’s Student Mental Health Initiative to improve access to mental health services on campus.
This fall, more than 568,000 students returned to class at colleges and universities across Ontario—up 161,000 since 2003.
A post-secondary education continues to be one of the best investments a student can make in their future. It is also an investment in Ontario’s future, because it means we can continue to build the highly skilled workforce we need for a strong, modern economy.
