The Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA) recently released a report of recommendations for the 2017 provincial budget.
OUSA’s recommendations focus on four issues raised by students in the process of creating the report: easier access to post-secondary statistics and information, supporting student services, preventing sexual violence, and advancing work-integrated learning.
The report suggests how to address these issues and gives an overall estimation of the cost of implementing them into policy.
The recommendations aim to show the ways the budget can use existing resources more efficiently, according to an OUSA press release. The report recommends $12 million be allocated from the discontinued Mental Health Innovation Fund, and instead put towards improving front-line mental health care on campuses.
OUSA also calls for the creation of a sexual violence prevention unit within the Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development, and sexual violence training for the alcohol service training program, SmartServe.
The report also recommends enabling students to learn directly in the workforce by providing up-front subsidies to employers hiring co-op students.
Zachary Rose, OUSA executive director, said the recommendations were “all student-driven.” He said students are the ones who write, research, and decide the lobbying priorities of OUSA.
OUSA represents the interests of over 140,000 university students at eight student associations across Ontario, according to the organization’s website. The Carleton University Students’ Association is not one of the eight associations.
“The budget is more than just projected expenditures,” Rose said. “It’s where the government will outline its broader priorities for the year and the actions that it’s pledging to take.”
Rose added that his organization has been successful with lobbying for students last year. He said grants for post-secondary education implemented in the 2016 budget were a direct result of OUSA’s recommendations and lobbying.
Last year, the provincial government introduced the Ontario Student Grant through its budget: free tuition for students in families earning less than $50,000 starting in the 2017-18 school year. The 2016 budget also planned to give grants to students from families making less than $83,000 a year.
The 2016 budget had a $133.9 billion spending plan and projected a $4.3 billion deficit. Rose said the upcoming budget is aiming to balance the budget and eliminate debt, so OUSA made the recommendations with this in mind.
“We thought if we could come to the table with some very low-cost or cost-neutral recommendations, they would have a higher chance of success based on the circumstances,” Rose said.
He said OUSA currently is scheduling meetings with members of the ministry to highlight key points of the report.
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