A Centretown restaurant serving Indian buffet committed more public health and food safety violations — including storing food in ways that could result in contamination — between 2009 and 2014 than any other restaurant in Ottawa.

Buffet Indian Aroma, located at 164 Laurier Ave. West, failed 38 inspections in almost five years, according to an analysis of data published by the City of Ottawa.

This is nine-and-a-half times higher than the average number of failed inspections by other restaurants in the capital during the same time period.

In many cases, the restaurant committed multiple violations —which a public health inspector labels as critical or non-critical — during a failed inspection.

“Critical” violations have to do with improper storage and preparation of food, such as failing to store raw and cooked foods separately. A “non-critical” infraction means the restaurant does not meet sanitation, design and maintenance regulations, such as failing to refill the liquid soap dispenser in the bathroom. These regulations are based on minimum standards outlined in Ontario’s Health Protection and Promotion Act.

In 2013 alone, Buffet Indian Aroma committed 24 violations over seven failed inspections, according to an online food safety inspection report. One-quarter of those violations were deemed “critical.”

A restaurant is fined for every violation, according to Kathy Downey, program manager at Ottawa Public Health. Fines range from $50 for failing to maintain the proper temperature in the freezer room to $375 for failing to have a hand-washing sink in the kitchen.

But Jamie Rilett, vice-president of Ontario at Restaurants Canada, said fines might not be the most effective punishment, as larger restaurants or chain restaurants might not blink at the cost.

To discourage non-compliance, Rilett says his organization — a non-profit association that represents restaurants across Canada through research, food safety training and government lobbying — first supports education and then closure until the problem is fixed.

“We don’t believe that there should be any corners cut in the service of food to the public,” Rilett said.

For Ottawa Public Health, Downey said education is the priority. She said education about public health regulations occurs at every inspection and food handlers are given the opportunity to correct certain issues during an inspection. Inspectors also encourage restaurant staff to enrol in the city’s food handler training courses.

“The more knowledge an operator and a food handler have on food safety, then the higher the chance of compliance,” Downey said.

Follow-up inspections generally occur in the days or weeks following a routine examination. Downey said it takes repetition of the same critical violations to warrant legal action or closure.

The public can help flag such repeated non-compliance. Downey said 12 inspections at Buffet Indian Aroma between 2009 and 2014 were generated from public complaints “related to sanitation, pest control or food borne illness.”

Indian restaurant also faced financial problems
Buffet Indian Aroma’s most recent inspection was June 11, 2014, but the restaurant’s doors closed before an inspector could pay another visit. Incidentally, its closure didn’t have to do with food safety.

According to a notice of distress taped to the restaurant’s window, the restaurant’s former owner, Dewan Chowdhury, owes $183,867.81 in rent payments to landlord Domenic Cambareri. The notice, issued Aug. 16, 2014, reads that Cambareri seized the restaurant’s inventory and equipment as repayment.

In order to regain his assets, Chowdhury needed to have paid his debt in full by Aug. 22, 2014.

Cambareri’s lawyer, Greg Farnand, said in an email that Chowdhury recently opened a new restaurant called Palki Cuisine of India at 1060 Ogilvie Rd. However, requests to reach Chowdhury at this new location were refused.

Other top offending restaurants in Ottawa include Feleena’s, located in the Glebe, and Lowertown Italian restaurant Stella Osteria. They failed their health inspections 30 and 28 times, respectively, between 2009 and 2014.

Funding given by the federal government to universities and students across Canada to pursue research in social sciences rose $548 million since 1998, adjusted for inflation.

According to an analysis of data published by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the amount of funding SSHRC gave to universities in 1998 was $93 million (or $121 million, adjusted for inflation). By 2012, that number rose by five and a half times, to $669 million.

Some of the 2012 money went to projects like MaRS Innovation, which received $4.3 million. MaRS’ work involves commercializing research results into products to sell. Its partners include the University of Toronto and Mount Sinai Hospital. Another project that was given $1.7 million in 2012 was ArcticNet, a network of researchers hosted at Université Laval studying the effects of climate change in the Canadian High Arctic and Hudson Bay. Much smaller grants are also given out, such as $250 to the University of Western Ontario for “Sacrifice and indifference in early modern philosophy.”

Over the 16 years much of the growth in total funding stems from the addition of frequent large grants, evidenced by the rise in the average grant value quickly outpacing the median grant value. This means that large grants are pulling the average higher, while the median, or middle value, grows much more steadily. In 1998, there were only three grants over $1 million. In 2012, there were 53. In fact, the top 10 grants in 1998 accounted for just over nine percent of total funding, and by the late 2000s it was nearly a third of all funding. 

Funding as risen particularly significantly since 2003, when the Liberal government under Paul Martin unveiled its “Indirect Costs Program,” which started giving large-scale grants to universities to cover “hidden” costs associated with high-level research, such as administrative costs. This program was touted by the Martin government as “part of the federal government’s strategy to make Canada one of the world’s top countries in research and development.” Indirect Costs Program (ICP) grants account for all of the top 25 grants in 2012, and all but six grants in the top 50 are ICP grants. In 2012, ICP grants – meant for administrative costs, secondary to the actual cost of funding the research – made up around 50% of the total federal funding.

“A funding formula determines the value of each institution’s grant,” says Ann Campbell, Director of the Office of the Vice-President Research and International at UBC. Basically, the federal government gives one year grants based on a formula that allots money to cover percentages of the costs that the universities declare, Campbell says. UBC, for example, received the second largest ICP grant in 2012, at $27.2 million. Campbell points to the UBC webpage that details how the grants are spent. This includes hiring secretaries, building costs such as heating and cooling, university services like Human Resources, and even travel for researchers.

Curiously, the formula above points out that if Parliament raises the budget for the Indirect Costs Program, then the program will raise the level of funding it can grant the universities. Ostensibly, this means even if the universities’ costs stay the same, the program could cover more of them. At print time, SSHRC had not respond interview requests.

The federal government has maintained that the ICP helps make Canadian universities among the best in the world in research. In 2012, the University of Toronto received the largest grant of any school, at more than $38 million. It also was ranked first in Canada, and 24th in the world, by Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s 2014 rankings. Perhaps it owes the Canadian taxpayer some thanks.

More people complained to the city of Ottawa over the summer about building codes in Rideau Vanier than in any other ward in the city, an analysis of city data shows.

Out of 221 total building code complaints made to the city between May and July of 2014, 32 came from the Rideau Vanier ward. Ward 16, River, came in second place, with 22 requests over the same period.

The data comes from the city’s collection of all completed requests through the ServiceOttawa channels. These include calls to 311, as well as requests through client service centres or on Ottawa.ca. The requests also differentiate between building code complaints and building code inquiries.

When someone calls in or notifies the city about illegal construction or demolition, unsafe building or parts of a building, as well as changing class, such as when a homeowner converts a house into a retail store, it is classified as a building code complaint, according to Donna Gray, director of Service Ottawa. Through a spokesperson, Gray said some complaints are then investigated.

“Complaints regarding an unsafe building or building element such as brick veneer or porches and balconies detaching itself from the building, or a building that has sustained damage or one that may collapse … are investigated by Building Code Services,” Gray said.

Mathieu Fleury, city councillor for Rideau-Vanier, said he thinks Rideau Vanier has a high number of complaints for one reason – the high number of conversions. Because of the ward’s proximity to the University of Ottawa, property owners in the past would buy buildings in the area and convert them for students, Fleury said.

“Those were problematic types of buildings. A lot of construction has happened over the last couple of years through that,” Fleury said.

These conversions were possible because of bylaws that allowed converted dwellings, Fleury said. Converted dwellings are buildings that originally had up to three units, and are then renovated to contain four units or more.

If a property owner wanted to convert a building this way, they could request that building permit without needing a structural planning review or public consultation.

“They would go right in to doing the work. Our issue is that these buildings were box-like structures, lot line to lot line, causing a lot more angers and issues in the community,” Fleury said.

Converted dwellings were removed as permissible from the zoning by-law in April 2014. However, the area still sees a large number of renovations and construction, which leads to a larger number of building code complaints, Fleury said.

“Vanier has seen high uptake of building permits in the past few years … there’s always work that’s ongoing. Generally, it’s … demonstrating that we are an area where there’s renewal, especially in the Vanier portion,” he said.

Fleury said he’s unsure whether the bylaw changes will lead to a reduction in building code complaints.

“We think we’ve put the right tools in place. Is it sufficient? Is it going to change? Are we going to require more enforcement because people will be doing it illegally? There’s two angles to that, for sure,” Fleury said.

A 15 per cent drop in average greenhouse gas emissions of new car models in Canada over the past 10 years is due mainly to regulatory restrictions and consumer demand, said David Worts, Executive Director of the Japanese Automobile Manufacturers Association of Canada. The data on vehicle emissions is provided by Natural Resources Canada, and shows a steady decline over the time period.

According to Worts, Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq’s recent announcement of new emissions standards for Canada, which will bring the nation’s regulations closer to those of the US, is par for the course. Canadian regulations have usually tended to align with the American ones, he added.  For car manufacturers, that means lowering emissions even further.

“The standards that are being set in Washington are getting a lot tougher,” he said. “And so that’s, I think, what’s driving a lot of the reduction.”

Both the newly announced and current regulations are implemented in steps, Worts explained. This gives manufacturers time to adapt, and helps explains the steady decrease in emissions over the past 10 years.

While Environment Canada says lowering greenhouse gas emissions is the goal of the new regulations, Carleton University professor John Stone, co-author of the 2014 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s report on climate change, cautions that better vehicle fuel economy may not result in much change in total emissions.

“When you make a machine more efficient, you actually tend to use it more,” said Stone. “So we have more efficient cars, but we tend to drive them further.”

This is supported by data from Environment Canada which shows that the nation’s total greenhouse gas emissions from transportation went down by less than two per cent from 2005 to 2012. Average new car emissions fell by over nine per cent during the same period.

Consumer demand also plays a role in the lowering of emission levels, said Worts. Surveys have shown that consumers are very interested in environmentally friendly vehicles, but it’s a tough balancing act between cost and fuel economy.

“The question is always what are the consumers willing to pay for,” he said. “Because a lot of these technologies, especially new technologies, are pretty expensive, consumers have shown some reluctance to pay a lot more for vehicles.”

Stephan Schott, Carleton professor and graduate supervisor of sustainable energy policy, believes increased consumer demand for more fuel efficient cars is partially driven by the perception that it’s cool.

“Celebrities, for example, now want to show that they are environmentally conscious,” said Schott. “So they all of sudden don’t drive Hummers anymore, but they drive hybrids or electric vehicles. So then people say, ‘Oh wow, that’s cool, that’s the new cool,’ and they copy that kind of behaviour.”

With regulations only set to get more restrictive in the future, Worts said automotive companies are increasingly focused on greener technologies.

“There’s various technologies that are being researched pretty heavily,” he said. “From hybrid gas electric technology, to pure electrics, to plug in hybrids.”

The biggest hurdle for these new innovations is cost and infrastructure. Driving an electric car is only feasible if you are travelling short distances, due to the lack of places to recharge, said Worts. Urban areas, where driving distances tend to be shorter and more regular, are really the only places they are feasible right now, he added. This worries manufacturers.

“Companies are being cautious, I think, in what they bring to the market and how they bring it to market,” said Worts. “Not everybody can afford a Tesla.”

Details of the new emissions regulations are set to published in parts one and two of the Canada Gazette, which will be available on Sept. 27 and Oct. 8 respectively.

Yukon drivers buy the most gasoline at the pumps in Canada per week according to an analysis of Statistics Canada data.

In 2013, drivers in Yukon purchased approximately 40.2 litres of gas each week, almost 1½ times the Canadian average. This is part of a larger national trend of increased fuel consumption.

But according to Roydon Fraser, a researcher at the Waterloo Centre for Automotive Research, this shouldn’t be surprising.

He said factors affecting the fuel efficiency of an engine – how much gas it burns per kilometre – include cold weather and poor road conditions.

Both of which are common in the territories.

“Engines consume more gasoline in cold weather and it’s not uncommon for people to run the engine for a couple minutes to get the block heater running,” he said.

Another effect on engine efficiency is the driving distance. In Ontario, many drivers live closer to cities, and the commute is not particularly difficult.

In the North, drivers often need to drive further and through icy conditions, Fraser said.

Ontario and Quebec drivers, while together purchasing 60 per cent of the nation’s gas, were near the median when it came to gasoline used per week. Ontario drivers consumed 27.8 litres and Quebec drivers 22.8 litres each week.

It is also more likely that Yukon drivers will be driving a truck rather than a small car. According to Statistics Canada, trucks outsold passenger cars by a 60-40 per cent margin in British Columbia and the Territories in 2013.

Fraser said this doesn’t mean drivers do not care about the environment. In fact it means the opposite.

“It’s called the energy paradox,” he said. “If we make more efficient engines, people will upgrade to bigger vehicles with a better fuel economy.”

A study published by researchers at the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) supports this. It found that the average engine efficiency has been steadily rising – from 11.7 l per 100 km in Oct. 2007 to 9.1 l per 100 km in August 2014.

But despite this, Canadians are still using more fuel. In 2013, Canadians purchased 41.5 million litres of gasoline at the pump. In 2010 that number was 39.7 million litres. “

The absolute consumption is going up, because of the increasing population. However, the consumption per driver is going down,” Michael Sivak, the director of UMTRI, wrote in an email.

In a study published in April 2014, Sivak found that the fuel consumption per driver is noticeably dropping. In the United States, between 2004 and 2012 each driver has cut down their yearly fuel consumption by 433 litres – about seven fill-ups per year.

While the report states there are “fundamental, non-economic changes in society” being driven by public transportation and increased urbanization, Sivak said there is still a lot of work to do in creating a sustainable future for transportation.

He said even though these numbers show support for sustainable transportation is increasing, drivers should still be conscious about the amount of fuel they consume.

Hate graffiti in Kitchissippi on the rise

By Jesse Winter

Bart Everson/ Flickr Creative Commons

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Kitchissippi is leading the city in complaints of hateful graffiti this year, far outstripping any other ward in Ottawa.

An analysis of data from the City of Ottawa shows that with 18 reports so far this year, the neighborhood west of downtown is on pace to beat its mark from last year, with almost four times as many reports of hateful vandalism than anywhere else in the city.

Within the ward, the vandalism is mostly centered in Hintonburg. The latest incident was reported just last week, according to Hintonburg Community Association president Matt Whitehead.

“The community has really been monitoring it. I saw someone Tweet about it, but by the time I got there it was already down, in about 20 minutes,” Whitehead said.

Hateful graffiti made headlines in April when swastikas, “hail Hitler,” and other Nazi slogans were scrawled across a highway underpass in Hintonburg. At the time it appeared to be an isolated incident, but the city’s data suggests otherwise.

Whitehead said police are investigating the on-going concern. Ottawa police did not return calls for comment by press time, but Whitehead said he has a working hunch of his own.

“The swastikas and everything, it’s really poorly written. What I’ve seen of it is barely legible. It doesn’t seem to be someone trying to incite anything. I think it could be just a couple of kids trying to cause a stir,” he said.

The numbers might support that theory, said Leo Russomano, a lawyer and hate crime expert from Carleton Univeristy.

“The numbers are small enough to suggest that it could be the same group of people, not indicative of a larger trend. Actual hate speech is a relatively rare crime,” especially since the complaints are so localized, Russomano said.

According to the data, the citywide number of complaints about hateful graffiti has been trending downward over the past five years. Kitchissippi, on the other hand, has seen a sharp jump in the past two years. In 2010 that area of the city had only two complaints about hateful graffiti.

If that spike is the work of one culprit or a small group, that could complicate things, Russomano said.

First of all, catching someone in the act is almost the only way to prove who was behind it, he said. There’s also the issue of proving intent. In order to prosecute a hate crime, the Crown must prove that the graffiti was intended to incite fear in a particular group. The Nazi slogans in Hintonburg certainly lean that way, but the fact that they are sprayed on public property, not targeted at Jewish organizations or businesses is also a factor. Charging the wrong person can be very damaging, he added.

In 2012 Russomano represented Joe Lendore, an Ottawa youth who was charged with mischief in connection to swastikas spray-painted on a CF-100 fighter plan at the Canadian War Museum. Evidence against him was slim, and the charges were ultimately dropped, but not before Lendore’s name was dragged through the mud, Russomano said.

“This kid’s life was totally messed up because of it. All the cops had was a video of him looking at the graffiti,” Russomano said.

“A hate crime is a very serious, and very damaging event. It’s incredibly hurtful to the community, but the flip side is that it can also be very stigmatizing to those who are charged if they are actually innocent,” he said.

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Tanzania receives more maternal and child health aid from Canada than any other country in the world, according to an analysis of a database the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development uses to keep track of donations.

The sub-Saharan African country received a total of $141 million from 2010 to 2013 to reduce maternal mortality and improve child and newborn health, 60 per cent more than the average amount of aid received by other priority countries identified by Foreign Affairs.

Tanzania received $19 million in 2010 to 2011, $58.8 million in 2011 to 2012 and $63.2 million in 2012 to 2013.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper addressed the United Nations General Assembly Thursday night calling for greater international cooperation to improve the health of women, children and newborns around the world. He also promised that Canada would be contributing to a new international fund to prevent maternal and newborn deaths.

Alexandre Asselin, a Foreign Affairs spokesperson, said in an email that Tanzania was one of 10 maternal and child health priority countries identified by the ministry, including Mozambique and Mali, which received the most money between 2010 and 2013 after Tanzania. Mozambique received $122 million and Mali received $99 million.

Asselin did not elaborate on why Tanzania received more money than any other country. He also did not clarify how Foreign Affairs decided which projects would receive money.

The aid money is part of a $2.85 billion, five-year commitment — called the Muskoka Initiative — to improve maternal, newborn and child health announced by the Canadian government at the G8 summit in 2010. A public database on the Foreign Affairs website shows how that money was spent from 2010 to 2013.

Canada’s commitment to maternal, newborn and child health initiatives was extended to $3.5 billion for 2015 to 2020 in May of this year. The money will be focused on strengthening healthcare systems, reducing the impact of major diseases through access to medicine and vaccines, and improving nutrition.

More than 20 projects in Tanzania have been funded under the federal government’s maternal, newborn and child health foreign aid program.

Plan Canada received $9.8 million from Foreign Affairs for its maternal health project focusing on ambulances services for expectant mothers in Tanzania.

Dr. Tanjina Mirza, vice-president of international programs, describes the funding as a “drop in the bucket” in comparison to the scale of maternal health needs in the country, which ranks 152 out of 183 on the United Nations’ Human Development Index.

Poverty reduction and lowering the maternal mortality rate are two areas in which considerable progress is yet to be made, according to the Foreign Affairs website.

“They need more clinics, more Caesarean theatrics. The needs are enormous,” Mirza said.

“Having that support from the Canadian government, not just in funding, but their position on the world stage, is critical.”

Aga Khan Foundation Canada received $12 million from Foreign Affairs to improve access to reproductive and child health services in rural Tanzania.

Naleem Merchant, a program officer at Aga Khan Foundation Canada, said the creation of the Muskoka Initiative was what allowed the Canadian branch of the Aga Khan Foundation to start working in maternal health. This is the organization’s first project.

She said the money has been used to improve the quality of health services, purchase medical equipment and refurbish health centres. Merchant said there has been a particular focus on community outreach programs, which are more expensive to run but they also lead to better results.

“We’re trying to make sure it’s not just health facility-based. A lot of people don’t like going to health facilities or can’t go to them,” she said.

When asked about tracking results and how federal money is spent, Mirza said she welcomed the federal government’s focus on accountability but said that Plan Canada felt a particular responsibility to the people it is trying to help.

“We don’t want to create parallel systems of healthcare,” she said. “This data and information is shared with the Tanzania Ministry of Health because that’s what true development is.”

Explanation: How I got my data

Less than half of Ottawa electors cast a vote in the 2010 Ottawa city council election, a mere 44 percent. City council election turnout has declined 9 percent compared to the 2006 election when turnout was 53 percent.

The Rideau-Vanier ward had the lowest turnout at 39 percent, followed by the Gloucester-Southgate ward which had a turnout of 40 percent.

The next municipal election will be held October 27th, 2014.

Professor Elizabeth Goodyear-Grant, who teaches political science at Queen’s University, said that municipal elections have to have low thresholds: “The bottom line is, people have to be elected. It is fair, we have to fill the positions, but is it ideal or desirable? No. That person has to govern the city council with an incomplete mandate. They haven’t heard from majority of the city.”

Rideau-Rockcliffe candidate Tobi Nussbaum said, “That could be a number of different factors, it could be a result of the fact that candidates didn’t do as much outreach and door knocking, that’s a possibility. I think there is a correlation between voting turnout and things like home ownership. It would be interesting to compare the voting record to what one would typically expect to a home owner versus rental split.”

The turnout for the Rideau-Rockcliffe ward was 42 percent. In Rideau-Rockcliffe, the percentage of homes rented is 52.6 percent compared to 47.4 percent who own. This correlation proved true in Rideau-Vanier, the ward with the lowest turnout, which has 72 percent rental homes compared to 28 percent owned.

There is another problem associated with turnout: municipal elections are not associated with political parties.

Due to the lack of party identification, Nussbaum said that what he tries to do is have a substantive policy campaign to ensure that he is engaging all the issues that are relevant to the residents of Rideau-Rockcliffe. He has knocked on over 12 000 doors since March.

“There really is no shortcuts, the wonderful thing about democracy is it really is about face to face, meeting one on one, meeting people, knocking on their door, introducing oneself, asking residents what their issues of concern are and listening and learning from that experience. So I’ve done that a lot and I think that’s really critical for a municipal candidate given as there isn’t a party structure behind us,” said Nussbaum.

Goodyear-Grant said that in Ottawa the information demands are higher.

In comparison to Toronto, Goodyear-Grant said candidates John Tory and Olivia Chow are known for their party work. “In that case, you will see high turnout; not because its important for one of the continent’s largest city and not because there has been a lot of media coverage around Ford. Most voters, to the extent that they understand left and right, they can figure out which candidate can stand for that.”

Goodyear-Grant said, “Municipal elections perennially have lower interest and lower stakes than provincial and federal level, but this can be farther from the truth. On things like foreign policy, we all have lots of opinions but these don’t tend to touch our lives.” Goodyear-Grant said, “All the bylaws and regulations, these impact our lives more than most things happening at the foreign level. Citizen’s perception to get involved is skewed, so there’s that problem.”

by Meagan Simpson

Students in Ontario are digging deeper in their pockets to pay for university than any other province in Canada according to recent statistics.

A report published by Statistics Canada revealed that the average tuition in Ontario is 42 percent higher than the average tuition across Canada. The province’s university students are currently paying around $7,539 for this school year, compared to the Canadian average of $5,293.

Ontario’s tuition fees are consistently higher then any other province and have also been rising at one of the highest rates. Since 2012 tuition has risen at 4 percent each year, which for students means an additional $300 a year.

The province’s Ministry of Education regulates tuition fees. One of it’s policies is placing a cap on the allowable amount tuition can rise in one year. In 2013 they decreased the cap for undergraduate tuition from 5 percent down to 3 percent.

Yet analyzing the numbers from Statistics Canada shows that the province’s tuition rose 3.9 percent from 2013 to 2014, regardless of the 3 percent cap.

Reza Moridi the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities argued that the numbers aren’t as bad as they seem. The student financial assistance programs in Ontario are one of the best in Canada, he said, offering as an example the 30% Off Tuition grant that was implemented in 2012.

Moridi said, “Once all government supports are factored in, the students with the greatest need pay substantially less tuition and virtually no student pays the full sticker price.”

However not everyone agrees with Moridi. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives released a recent report stating that such grants do not apply to all students and do not reduce tuition fees.

The 30% Off Tuition grant only applies to certain students. It excludes part-time students, students who have been out of high school for more than four years and those over a certain income level.

Moridi states that the grant is still useful for many students. “[The grant] helped approximately 230,000 college and university students in 2013 to 2014 alone,” said Moridi.

If the numbers are correct the amount of students who benefited from the grant were less than half of students enrolled in university and college programs across Ontario according to enrolment numbers from the Association of Universities and Colleges Canada.

The report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives also predicted Ontario’s students would be paying $9,483 by the year 2017. In contrast it predicted the average Canadian tuition would be $7,000.

Student organizations like the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) are protesting such high increases. The CFS supports students and works for their rights across the country and in each province. It released a statement in May, denouncing the provincial government of Ontario’s treatment of tuition fees.

In the release it argued that the Liberal government’s policies have made Ontario the most expensive province for post-secondary students. It states, “This government is condemning a generation to a future of financial insecurity and uncertainty.”

Despite government grants and protest from student unions like CFS, tuition in the province is still on the rise and doesn’t appear to be stopping anytime soon.