New Brunswick Liberals are promising to enhance their free tuition program if re-elected in this month’s provincial election, while accusing the Tories of threatening to cancel the program.
Leader Brian Gallant said they would raise the income threshold for free tuition to $70,000 from $60,000, and thereafter index it to inflation.
It would mean that students whose family income is $70,000 or less would be eligible for free tuition at any publicly funded university or college in New Brunswick.
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“We will also make concurrent increases to the sliding scale used in our Tuition Relief for the Middle Class program, allowing New Brunswick students from the middle class to receive more financial support when they go to university or college here in New Brunswick,” Gallant said.
“Offering free tuition to those that need it the most, and tuition relief for the middle class, will change lives as it will create more opportunities for our youth to stay here in New Brunswick while creating a fairer economy,” he said.
Gallant said last year alone, 6,319 students benefited from free tuition, while 1,425 benefited from tuition relief under the middle class program.
He didn’t have the costing for the program Tuesday, but said it would be released prior to the election on Sept. 24.
Gallant also used the announcement to make an attack on the Progressive Conservatives and their position on the Free Tuition program.
“Blaine Higgs and the Conservatives are against the Free Tuition program,” Gallant said.
“Blaine Higgs will try to pretend that he will maintain the program if the Conservatives were to win this election. But make no mistake, he has made it clear that he would rip up the Free Tuition program even if more than 6,300 New Brunswick students benefited from the investment last year alone.”
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Higgs was working with campaign staff to prepare for a pair of televised leaders debates next week, and was unavailable for comment Tuesday.
But Tory candidate Dominic Cardy said Gallant’s statements about his party’s plans are wrong.
“That’s totally made up. I think at this point in the election we’re going to call Brian Gallant out for behaving like a cold-weather version of Donald Trump. He’s just making things up,” Cardy said.
“We have absolutely, categorically not said we were going to cancel it. We’ve said we want to see the results.”
Cardy, who is a former leader of the New Brunswick New Democrats, is running for the Tories this time around.
“The stuff that Mr. Gallant goes around talking about, saying we want to close schools and hospitals and fire people – it’s all made up,” Cardy said.
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Emily Blue, executive director of the New Brunswick Student Alliance, said expansion of the tuition programs by the Liberals was welcomed news.
She said it will do a lot to give more young New Brunswickers a chance to go to university and college. Blue said it’s better than some of the rebates or tax credits offered in the past to students after they graduate.
“It’s great to think when I graduate in four years I’ll be able to access rebates, however that doesn’t help when you’re looking down the barrel of paying $20,000 or $40,000 over the course of your education,” she said.
Blue said she’s hoping the other parties will support the Free Tuition program and also look for other ways to help students.
“I think that there needs to be increased supports for mental health and sexual violence survivors. I think that both of those would improve the lives of students,” She said.
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Blue stressed that while the New Brunswick Student Alliance is non-partisan, it is running an active campaign to get students to vote and have their voices heard.
The New Democrats announced Tuesday that an NDP government would hire 100 more professionals to work in schools, including teachers, education assistants, psychologists and social workers.
“We need to make a better plan to address the mental health needs of our students, especially in high schools with self-assessment tools and support of mental health professionals,” said New Democrat Leader Jennifer McKenzie.
She said an NDP government would place a moratorium on all rural school closures until a thorough review of the best ways to support schools in rural New Brunswick.
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