Ontario PC Caucus Stands Up for Barrie’s Laurentian Campus, Despite Hoggarth’s Silence on Issue

QUEEN’S PARK – Today during Question Period, Lorne Coe, MPP for Whitby-Oshawa and the PC Critic for Training, Colleges and Universities, questioned the Liberal Government on the closing of the Laurentian University campus in Barrie.  Plans are in place for the university to exit the city in the spring of 2019.

Without transitional dollars from the province, hundreds of students at the Barrie campus will be unable to finish their degrees at the school where they started their higher education. 

Mr. Coe said in his statement that “ultimately it all comes back to funding, without transitional dollars hundreds of students will be displaced from the Barrie campus of Laurentian before they finish their degrees.”  He asked the Liberal government to provide those transitional dollars.

Mr. Coe also cited the fact that Laurentian was turned down by the Liberal government in its bid to expand the Barrie location to a stand-alone facility.  It currently occupies space at the Georgian College campus in Barrie. 

After Barrie was denied a new university campus back in May, 2015, local Liberal MPP Ann Hoggarth refused to advocate on behalf of her constituents. Ease of access is a primary concern for students when choosing which institution to attend. High school students in Simcoe County have a lower university participation rate than the provincial average, and those that do attend university are overwhelmingly forced to leave the area.

“The people of Barrie deserve better from their local representative. MPP Hoggarth needs to do the job her constituents elected her for and put her community’s needs over those of her government,” Coe added after Question Period.