The Varsity

In a Wednesday report on Ontario’s spending, renowned economist Don Drummond recommended major cuts to the province’s post-secondary school system.

“The status quo is unsustainable,” wrote Drummond in the report.

Based on Ontario’s current spending rates, he projected that the province’s projected $16 billion deficit for 2011–2012 will grow to $30.2 billion by 2017. He proposed serious cuts to health care, education, and social spending.

The education sector will experience fewer cuts, but Drummond’s recommendations have been met with skepticism from Ontario residents. The former TD Bank chief economist suggested cancelling the newly introduced 30 per cent tuition grant. Drummond supported the annual 5 per cent tuition increase but recommended more funding for low-income students and streamlined grant procedures.

Other proposals were directed towards structural reforms, namely, introducing uniform educational standards between schools, creating incentives for better teaching, and redefining the individual mandates of each institution — which should allow some universities to specialize in research.

Drummond noted the importance of making long-term changes and institutional reforms rather than simply cutting services to Ontario residents.

The report contained recommendations for a variety of matters aside from education; for example, it also suggested imposing wage freezes for doctors and a zero wage budget for public employees.

“We didn’t really just approach this as a narrow, simple minded fiscal exercise,” he told reporters upon the release of the report.

With files from The National Post and Toronto Star.