On today’s CHMA daily news:
- Mount Allison hikes tuition fees;
- Big layoffs from Irving and VIA Rail;
- Nova Scotia revokes travel exemptions for Irving execs;
- An interview with Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton about the border and the Bubble;
- And the COVID numbers update.
COVID numbers
New Brunswick reported another day with no new cases of COVID-19.
There is just one remaining active case in New Brunswick, and the person is not in hospital.
Testing in the province continues below the threshold recommended by Chief Medical Officer of Health Jennifer Russell in May.
362 new test results were reported yesterday, with 170 of those in the south-east region.
Nova Scotia announced one new case of COVID-19, in a truck driver who travelled outside Canada as an essential worker.
PEI has reported no new cases of the disease since the five cases discovered last weekend.
Mount Allison hikes tuition in advance of approved budget
Mount Allison students are looking at a 4.5% increase in tuition fees according to a fee schedule posted on the university’s website Tuesday.
Last year’s undergraduate fees for Canadian students were $8770.
This year the fees will go up nearly $400, to $9,165 for a full time student.
New Brunswick residents qualify for a provincial discount of between $410 and $915 deducted from tuition.
The Registrar’s office tweeted out a link to the new fees on Tuesday morning, causing some students to react on social media.
Late Wednesday afternoon, University President Jean-Paul Boudreau sent out an email explaining the increase.
Boudreau says the decision was made July 3rd by the executive committee of the university’s Board of Regents.
While approval of the university’s budget has been delayed until October due to the pandemic, Boudreau says students fees had to be set so that students could plan in advance.
Boudreau also says there is a plan to increase student financial aid by at least $400,000.
The Mount Allison Student Union released a statement yesterday addressing the decision saying that they are “profoundly disappointed.”
President of the student union Jon Ferguson says the increase was unexpected for many students, considering that courses will be mostly delivered in online format.
Click to listen:
“Certain universities there are students pushing for there to be in fact reduced tuition due to the change in services offered but here we are seeing quite the opposite.”
Ferguson acknowledges that COVID-19 has added more financial stress for students.
Click to listen:
“There is a lot of financial strain that students are facing this year that would not have necessarily been planned. Even if there hadn’t been that strain, even if the COVID pandemic had not happened, we would not be in favour of a tuition increase right now.”
The student union has met with Vice President International and Student Affairs Kim Meade to express discontent with the situation.
The union has created a Change.org petition demanding that the increase be repealed.
Ferguson encourages students who are unhappy with the tuition increase to sign the petition and to send their ideas to the student union.
Mount Allison had the highest undergraduate tuition in Canada last year according to Universities Canada.
Tuitions are constantly high at Maritime universities, with 12 of the 15 most expensive Canadian undergrad schools located in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
The University of PEI is number 16 on the list.
Irving executives travel exemption revoked
Nova Scotia’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Robert Strang is revoking an exemption granted to Irving Shipbuilding executives for business travel to the United States in June.
The executives were granted permission to travel to the US as essential workers, and agreed to isolate pending testing upon their return.
Strang issued a statement Wednesday saying that after concerns were raised, he revoked the exception and made clear there will be no further company travel to or from the US.
He also ordered the individuals be sent home to isolate for 14 days and asked for assurances that COVID testing has been completed.
Layoffs at Irving
Irving Oil has announced it will lay off 250 workers, citing challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The number amounts to roughly six per cent of Irving’s workforce.
No other details were released, including how many Canadian workers will be affected by the cuts.
Saint John-Rothesay MP Wayne Long tweeted out that 173 of Irving’s New Brunswick employees would be laid off, with most of those working in Saint John.
Layoffs at VIA Rail
VIA Rail also announced massive layoffs in a statement Wednesday.
The crown corporation is temporarily laying off approximately 1,000 unionized workers, just under one third of its workforce.
CEO Cynthia Garneau said the company doesn’t expect ridership to be back to pre-COVID-19 levels in the foreseeable future.
The layoffs will take effect on July 24th.
Megan Mitton on the Aulac border and the Atlantic Bubble
On Tuesday, about 9,000 vehicles crossed into New Brunswick at Aulac, according to the province’s online reporting.
According to reports on social media, wait times to cross at Aulac continue to be unpredictable and long.
New Brunswick’s Public Safety minister says that officials will continue to waive Atlantic Canadian cars through the checkpoint when traffic waits become too long.
The department is also working on a “technology-enabled solution” to the traffic problem.
CHMA’s Erica Butler called up Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton to get her thoughts on what’s happening with the border, and the Atlantic Bubble in general.
Erica started by asking Mitton what she thought the main challenges are with the border, and what we should be doing to fix them.
Click to listen:
CHMA Daily News is hosted Mahalia Thompson-Onichino, and produced by Erica Butler, with contributions from Bruce Wark, Meg Cunningham, Aura-Lynn Groomes, Geoff de Gannes, and James Anderson.
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