Education is about to get a lot more expensive for British Columbia's best and brightest, after a spate of provincial budget cuts eliminated a cherished scholarship program.
Emily Walker came in at the top of her class, and Oak Bay High School put her in line for a provincial scholarship.
"I was really lucky to be chosen by my school," Walker said. "I worked really hard to get my grades up to get these scholarships."
But then she got some bad news - the entire Premiers Excellence Award program got cut. Now, she won't get a penny.
For more than 20 years, the B.C. government has rewarded 16 of our most distinguished students with a grant of $17,000 each. It was a program boasted by BC Liberal premier Gordon Campbell himself.
"You're leaders," Campbell told scholarship winners in 2005. "You're people in your communities and schools that people look to and say, 'I can't believe she did that. Did you hear about what he did? Maybe I can do that.'"
But the awards were quietly eliminated this summer as part of a spate of education cuts.
Facing plummeting revenues, the province elminated $16 million from education, including:
- $1.4 million from debt reduction
- $1.4 million from health care bursary
- $1.6 million from nurses education bursary
- $1.6 million from loan reduction program for residential care aides
"It's going to be tough for B.C.," opposition leader Carole James said. "We need to keep the bright minds here in B.C. to help us in these difficult times. If we lose them it's a loss to our economy."
The government said it had to cut these programs to keep student loans intact.
'It's important we protect the funding for the core student aid program," Finance minister Colin Hansen said. "Even as we go through different economic times, we want to make sure we protect those core programs."
Students like Emily Walker will now be getting loans instead of grants - and despite their effort in school, they'll have a lot more work ahead of them to pay them off.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Jon Woodward
