(Queen’s Park) – Garfield Dunlop, MPP for Simcoe North, today criticized the McGuinty Liberals for announcing a postsecondary tuition increase on the second day of a full-blown teachers’ strike at Ontario’s 24 community colleges.

“This is a pathetic and irresponsible attempt by the Premier and Minister Bentley to blame striking college teachers for a tuition hike and turn the public against teachers,” said Dunlop. “It’s a shameful tactic executed by Premier McGuinty – the man who calls himself the ‘Education Premier’”.

“I visited picket lines at two colleges earlier today – Georgian College in Barrie and Georgian’s campus in Midland – and I can tell you that teachers are on to the Premier,” added Dunlop. “Teachers know Dalton McGuinty is just using them and their strike to his political advantage, instead of showing leadership and working with them to resolve the current dispute.”

Dunlop also pointed out that the McGuinty government has yet to flow any of the $6.2 billion it announced for postsecondary education in the 2005 Budget, claiming this announcement was just a ‘hoax’ to get Ontarians to ‘believe’. Furthermore, Dunlop noted, the 2005/06 budget is yet to be approved for Ontario’s community colleges.

“People are quickly losing faith in the McGuinty government’s ability to manage the education file in this province,” said Dunlop. “Today’s move by the Premier further proves this point, because all he demonstrated today is a complete lack of respect for the community colleges system in this province.”

Contact:
Garfield Dunlop
(705) 327-4500 (cell)