CBU Students’ Union president asking MPs to eliminate tuition fees
Cape Breton University Students’ Union president Eleanor Sidley is on Parliament Hill this week to push for tuition-free post-secondary education.
Every year the Canadian Federation of Students sends student reps from across the country to Ottawa where they spend a week meeting with MPs and senators about education reform.
Sidley said they are making three main recommendations to the government representatives they talk to: Eliminate tuition fees for all post-secondary students, including our international students; boost funding for independent, investigator-led research; and increase Indigenous content.
While eliminating tuition fees would cost about $9 billion, Sidley said it’s achievable if the government looks for savings in other areas.
As far as including Aboriginal content, “CBU is ahead of the game,” said Sidley.
“Much like Unama’ki College on CBU’s campus, we want to see things like that across the country,” she said.
Sidley, 24, who is from Elmvale, Ont., north of Toronto, said she will have spoken to a number of MPs by the time the trip ends, including Cape Breton MPs Rodger Cuzner and Mark Eyking. However, the recent tourism and hospitality graduate said she is particularly excited about her meeting with Small Business and Tourism Minister Bardish Chagger.
Sidley said she met the Waterloo MP, who is currently leader of the Government in the House of Commons, in the summer when she was one of 50 young people from across Canada taking part in an event on entrepreneurship in the tourism sector.
“It was three days in Ottawa over the summer where we talked about tourism and entrepreneurship, so I’m excited to see her again.”