Vote to Support Post-Secondary Education

Vote to Support Post-Secondary Education

This fall’s federal election takes place on Monday, October 19th. We urge all our members to consider some of the issues related to post-secondary education and to unions when you head to the polls.

• Check out the Get Science Right campaign from CAUT. This campaign highlights the government’s muzzling of scientists and politicization of research carried out by its departments and public agencies. The campaign believes that, to serve the public interest, government scientists must be free to speak publicly about their findings.
• On June 30th, the government pushed adoption of Bill C-377, a bill that imposes onerous reporting requirements on trade unions, labour organizations, and employee associations. This bill has been criticized as unconstitutional, undemocratic, discriminatory, and an invasion of personal privacy.
• Rising student debt levels have been identified as a major issue for many young people across the country. The Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) wants the federal government to consider implementing Newfoundland and Labrador’s recent shift from loans to grants across the country. CFS National Chairperson Bilan Arte said, “without a deliberate, national plan around postsecondary education and youth employment, we are going to see this generation failed again.”
• Over 11 million Canadians don’t have a workplace pension. Less than 25 percent of Canadians contribute to RRSPs, which on their own are an ineffective way to prepare for retirement anyway. Consider the proposed expansion of the CPP for meeting the needs of our aging population.

We encourage members to take these and other matters affecting the post-secondary education and labour sectors into consideration when going to the polls on October 19th.

Check out the BC Civil Liberties Association recent blog on Election Shenanigans!

Additional Reading

• Decent work for a decent education [CAUT]
• Canada’s Self-Imposed Crisis in Post-Secondary Education [Progressive Economics Forum]
• Gov’t investment in post-secondary education more than pays for itself [CCPA]