“Cutting aid ain’t funny, we need money!” chanted a group of students as they marched down the streets of Fredericton.
On Sept. 26, St. Thomas University and University of New Brunswick students protested tuition increases and cuts to debt-relief programs in New Brunswick. The protest was organized by the New Brunswick Student Alliance in partnership with student unions across the province.
Ailish MacKenzie-Foley, STU Students’ Union vice-president education, and Craig Fernandez, UNB Students’ Union president, led the group of students that gathered in front of UNB’s Student Union Building and then marched to the legislative assembly in downtown Fredericton.
Almost 20 people participated in the march down the streets of Fredericton. Some carried posters.
STUdents for Free Tuition, a STU-based advocacy group, showed up to the first ten minutes of the event. They said they didn’t feel comfortable commenting before press time regarding the rally.
MacKenzie-Foley believes the event had a great response.
“I think it was super impactful because we’ve reached so many people in their cars coming home and we got a lot of support just by honk,” she said.
Now that there aren’t good options for debt-relief and student financial-aid programs, the NBSA thought the rally would be a good option for them and students to “show how they feel,” said MacKenzie-Foley.
In April 2019, Higgs government announced a new program that would replace the free tuition program. The new program, the Renewed Tuition Bursary, was expanded to include private educational institutions. This allowed more students to have access to the same amount of funding, which ultimately made the bursary pool smaller.
At this time, the government also announced they were bringing back the tuition tax credit and canceling the timely completion benefit.
MacKenzie-Foley said the group decided to peacefully go to the legislative assembly and talk about why it’s important and read testimonies from other students who have been impacted by the cuts.
“It’s not just the NBSA, it’s everyone involved,” she said.
Kjeld-Mizpah Conyers-Steede, executive director of the NBSA, said this is the first time the NBSA has organized a protest.
“We’re doing things a little differently this year,” he said.
“We’re trying to become more of a user-centric or student-centric organization and hear the needs from our students and the members we represent.”
He said the rally is part of a “bigger vision” the NBSA has, which is to develop a strategic vision within the post-secondary education sector.
“We understand that education is the biggest equalizer and we feel that having all actors [students, universities, governments and the private sector] within the system together as one and developing this vision is the way [forward] for post-secondary education in the province,” he said.
Conyers-Steede said he’s going to stress the importance of a human and student-focused post-secondary education. He said people within the sector need to step back and look at what students need when it comes to post-secondary education and think about how students can be included in the future of the province.
“What’s happened now is that, for example, the government thinks that they know everything,” he said.
“Universities think they know everything and they increase tuition. And students think another way.”
Once the group reached the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick, MacKenzie-Foley and Fernandez read testimonies from students who were in debt and a letter from the NBSA to David Coon, Fredericton’s member of the legislative assembly.
Coon came out of the building and talked to members of the crowd and MacKenzie-Foley and Fernandez.
Conyers-Steede said the NBSA is looking forward to advocacy week in November, where it will be lobbying with individuals regarding post-secondary issues.
“It’s actually happening all over the province … we’re trying to hit every riding,” he said.
