Ghiz to honour PCs' education pledges

A Liberal government will honour the outgoing Conservatives education pledges, but will have to wait until the 2008-09 school year to deliver major student relief, Premier-designate Robert Ghiz said Tuesday.

In one of his first official appearances since winning the May 28 election, Ghiz addressed approximately 400 people at the annual meeting of the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education, a group which represents workers at universities, colleges and independent schools across the country.

Ghiz told the group that he sees higher education as a key to the ongoing economic development of P.E.I., creating a skilled work marketplace in which new industries like aerospace and biotechnology create jobs even as traditional trades like farming use fewer and fewer labourers.

Through education and through innovation we can continue to develop, he said.

Affordable education was a repeated political theme in the election.

Premier Pat Binns promised in his last budget to bring in a 10 per cent reduction for university tuition. For his part, Ghiz promised education measures that include a $2,000 bursary for students starting at Holland College or UPEI, and an incentive plan that would give college and university graduates who settle on the Island tax credits worth $2,000 a year for five years.

Ghiz told reporters hed deliver the tuition rollback this year but would have to wait for his governments first full budget to bring in the bursary and tax credits.

Really, this year were working on the former governments budget, he said. For next year, were hoping to start to implement our own programs. These are two programs we hope to have done on our first budget.

In some cases there were commitments made and Ive said I was going to honour those commitments, for example the 10 per cent reduction for UPEI, and Ill honour that.

Ghiz said he thinks the first-year bursary will make it easier for students of any economic background to start a post-secondary education. The plan would cost from $1 million to $2 million, in his estimation.

He said hed like to move towards eliminating the cost of the final year of university as an incentive to students completing their studies.

The post-graduate tax break is designed to help the province take advantage of college and university graduates, wherever they are from and to lure them into setting up careers on P.E.I.

Anyone who graduates from an institution whether a college or a university who chooses to work on Prince Edward Island, were going to provide for five years a

$2,000 tax break for them, Ghiz said.

That will help put more money in their pockets, it will help attract more people to Prince Edward Island . . . Saskatchewan and New Brunswick already have that program. Its something Ive been talking about for four years.