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Chris Young/The Canadian Press
Ottawa needs to address the funding and access problems regarding postsecondary education that have been aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a coalition of university faculty, student and labour groups.
Rising tuition coupled with pandemic-induced unemployment is reducing access to education and training, the coalition says in its report, called “Education for All,” released Tuesday. Many people who have lost their jobs in the past year are unable to afford the training that could help them get back to work, it says.
“Philanthropy is an exercise in power …. In a democratic society, wherever we see the exercise of power in a public setting, the first response it deserves isn’t gratitude but scrutiny.”
Public institutions
Similarly, Canadian hospitals are almost all public institutions, the result of policy developments that culminated in the the Canada Health Act in 1984.
In Ontario, 145 of 155 hospitals in the province are public hospitals. These institutions are funded by taxpayers’ money and work within the rules set forth by the act prohibiting user fees and mandating public administration.
But defunding of both higher education and health has occurred, in the form of direct cuts and indirectly through stagnant budgets in the face of rising costs and yearly inflation starting in the ‘90s onwards. This defunding has presented institutional administrators with significant financial challenges.
Should we simply celebrate philanthropic donations to medical schools or hospitals for that matter? There are reasons to look closer. As
political scientist Rob Reich of Stanford University notes:
“Philanthropy is an exercise in power …. In a democratic society, wherever we see the exercise of power in a public setting, the first response it deserves isn’t gratitude but scrutiny.”
Public institutions
Similarly, Canadian hospitals are almost all public institutions, the result of policy developments that culminated in the the Canada Health Act in 1984.
In Ontario, 145 of 155 hospitals in the province are public hospitals. These institutions are funded by taxpayers’ money and work within the rules set forth by the act prohibiting user fees and mandating public administration.
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Universities and colleges employ hundreds of thousands of people, educate and train over two million students annually and drive research that improves the lives of all Canadians. In cities and communities across the country, they are regional economic drivers and social and cultural centres. Our world-class post-secondary education system is critical to our prosperity, underpins our democracy and finds solutions to key challenges, be it COVID or climate change.
All of this is in peril and not just because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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