Liberals Zero Barrier Plan for Post-Secondary Education

Sunday, September 1, Dougald Lamont announced our Manitoba Liberal Party Plans for Post-Secondary Education.  The announcement is below.

Manitoba Liberals Announce Zero Barrier Plan for Post-Secondary Education

Manitoba Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont announced today The Zero Barrier plan for post-secondary education.

“Education is one of the great levellers. We want to make sure that Manitobans can fulfill their potential no matter their background, no matter where they live in the province,” said Lamont. “Our goal is access to education for all, with zero barriers. ” 

Manitoba Liberals will increase funding to the Access Program by $5 million dollars, or 50%, in the first year. This will help ensure every student seeking access to education is able to get it. A Liberal Government will also  broaden the eligibility requirements for mature and part-time students, as well as those who do not have full-time status employment, so that more people in varied situations have equal access to financial aid to attend post-secondary education.

Manitoba Liberals also want to ensure we are not unfairly saddling students with cuts made by government. A Liberal Manitoba Government will restore the $12 million dollars in cuts to Universities and Colleges while ensuring that increases to annual support match inflation rates. This will ensure our educational institutions have the confidence to plan for the future. With this long-term investment, we can give students the certainty of a tuition freeze at inflation without cuts to programs and services.

The Zero Barrier Plan also includes: 

·      Overhauling the eligibility requirements for Manitoba Student Aid and remove difficult barriers to accessing financial aid by removing restrictions for students

·      Working with trade institutions to broaden access and promotion of entering the trades with additional programming to recruit women into trade programs

·      Increasing access and recruitment of women into STEM fields

·      The Liberal “improved access to psychological therapies (IAPT)” will train councillors to provide psychological services to students increasing access and affordability to institutions and services to students

“These measures will ensure post-secondary institutions are able to offer quality programming while keeping tuition affordable to Manitobans,” said Tanjit Nagra, Manitoba Liberal Candidate for Fort Richmond.

Pallister has threatened the quality of our post-secondary institutions with annual cuts and steep increases to tuition. These cuts have reduced the quality of education institutions are able to provide while costing Manitobans more.