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Overview
BILL 2
m a n i t o b a
In the 2011 Manitoba Provincial Election, the NDP promised to create a law that would cap tuition fee increases to the rate of inflation, as well as provide three-year funding commitments as part of the budget process. Having won the election with the strongest mandate in eighty years, the re-elected NDP government introduced Bill 2, the Protecting Affordability for University Students Act, to legislate these election promises. Bill 2 would do so by amending the Council on PostSecondary Education (COPSE) Act COPSE is the official oversight and funding distribution organization for government-funded universities and colleges in Manitoba. While well-intended, there are a number of serious problems within the proposed legislation that compromise the governments ability to protect students from the rising costs of attending university or college. Bill 2 is being presented as legislation that will protect the affordability of university, however the legislation will still allow for tuition fees to increase by inflation, as well as allow universities to continue using ancillary fees to fund core teaching & research activities. Moreover, the legislation does not even include all students. College students and international students are altogether excluded from this legislation, while significant loopholes fail to protect undergraduate and graduate students in professional programs. The Canadian Federation of StudentsManitoba recommends the provincial government amend Bill 2 to create an absolute cap on all fees for all students in all programs in a given year; make threeyear funding projections every year instead of every three; and create a system that allows for tuition fee increases below inflation, tuition fee freezes or tuition fee decreases.
Funding Projections
Bill 2 commits the government to create a three-year funding projection for every third budget. For example, a funding projection in the 2013 Budget would include funding expectations for 2013, 2014 and 2015. A new three-year funding projection would be included in the 2016 Budget, and would include outlooks for 2016, 2017 and 2018. Budget projections allow universities to budget more effectively internally, particularly with long-term planning. This helps students unions push to avoid short-sighted spending cuts by University administrations based on the unpredictability of government grants. However, as it stands, the province can choose to not fulfill the projected funding commitments. Bill 2 could be made more effective by making the funding commitments legally binding on the government, and by having the government provide a new projection in each years budget that would project funding for the
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FACTS
BILL 2
m a n i t o b a