NDP Education Critic Rosario Marchese says Dalton McGuinty should start protecting students and stop looking the other way while Colleges and Universities charge tuition-related ancillary fees.

Marchese was referring to today’s ruling by Judge Joan Lax that the $200-million class action suit brought forward by students Amanda Hassum and David Roffey on behalf of Ontario college students should not proceed since it is the government’s responsibility to enforce its own regulations.

Judge Lax stated in her decision that: “…where a college does not comply with the ancillary fee policy and, in the case of fees governed by the protocol for introducing or increasing compulsory ancillary fees, the policy directive provides that if no resolution can be achieved through discussions among signatories to the protocol, the college’s operating grant will be reduced by the amount corresponding to the revenue raised by the fee or fee increase.” (italics added)

Judge Lax’s decision means that the McGuinty government could withhold funding from colleges to stop them from collecting excessive non-allowable fees from debt-ridden students.

“This is a clear signal to Dalton McGuinty that he must act now and protect students from paying hundreds of dollars in fees instead of insulting them with a flimsy book voucher,” said Marchese. “The ball is squarely in his court now.”

The McGuinty government is aware that colleges are charging non-allowable ancillary fees. In a July 2004 memo to college presidents, Acting Deputy Minister Kevin French warned that “no ancillary fees for . . . items . . . such as building and information technology infrastructure improvements are to be levied on students unless specifically approved by the Ministry.”

“College presidents continue charging non-allowable ancillary fees because McGuinty knows what they are doing and won’t do anything about it,” remarked Marchese. “That is how students graduate with debt loads that look like mortgages – McGuinty is failing to protect them.”

As an opposition MPP, Dalton McGuinty told this legislature that "turning a blind-eye" to tuition-related fees is the same as "raising tuition fees through the back door". Now Dalton McGuinty has stayed silent instead of providing Colleges with the $50 million students have asked for to help Colleges stop collecting non-allowable fees.

“As an opposition member McGuinty was outraged by the Colleges’ back door shenanigans to raise tuition,” noted Marchese. “Now that he is the Premier, he’s holding the back door wide open.”