By Sarah Murphy NEWS EDITOR

Last week’s budget has invited se- vere criticism from Ca- nadian tax payers in- cluding Islanders.

“ [An] Emphasis on tax cuts was wel- comed,” said Annette Ryan, senior analyst for federal fiscal relations for the PEI govern- ment, “but it benefited the rich.”

Bob Crockett, Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Regional Di- rector for New Brunswick and PEI was also disappointed by this year’s budget. Crockett insisted that it did not address critical issues such as health care, child poverty, job training, and education.

“Tt was the lib- eral government who started these programs and they are not keep- ing them up,” said Crockett, who like Ryan believes the only benefits brought about by Martin’s budget are for the wealthy. “It all has to do with faimess,” he added.

“Tf the govern- ment does not answer the cry for help they are ignoring the very basic problems of our soci- ety,” said Crockett,

adding thata significant

amount of money should be put into healthcare, unem- ployment, child pov- erty, and housing, for which there is a sig- nificant shortage of across the nation. Municipalities also need help from higher levels of government said Crockett.

BJ McCarville, UPEI Student Union Vice President Exter- nal and Canadian Federation of Student (CFS) provincial rep- resentative fears that post-secondary edu- cation was pushed to the sidelines in Martin’s address.

McCarville received lots of sup- port from the campus community in recent months when she campaigned in order to raise awareness about the current state of higher educa- tion in PEI and across the country through the CFS’s Access 2000 campaign. She thinks it would be un- fortunate to make cuts to education now.

“Tt boils down to 100 per cent poli- tics. We are going to survive one way or the other,” McCarville added. “[But] we are

hoping for the best from the province.”

McCarville be- lieves she has little say in the matter.

But Ryan dis- agrees, and maintains that education will not suffer in the province.

“The province has pretty much main- tained their spending, even with $18 million less [in transfer pay- ments],” said Ryan, adding that government spending on post-sec- ondary education had dropped from $42.4 million in 1994-95, to $42.3 million in 1998- 99.

UPEI president

Wade MacLauchlan is confident that post-sec- ondary education re- mains on_ the government’s agenda. “The [Federal government] was very clear,” MacLauchlan said. “Post secondary education is part of their commitment.” MacLauchlan added that he believes that the federal government’s initiative to inject money in research is an excel- lent idea, but that it is very important to get recognition of the need for the whole country to participate, especially smaller universities suchas UPEI. [EJ

iAH page 9

Create.

Investigate. Communicate.

The Faculty of Graduate Studies at The University of Manitoba.

www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/graduate_studies Graduate_Studies @ UManitoba.ca

Need a personal line of credit? Acadia’s Spring and Summer on-campus and distance courses provide the best credit anywhere.

With courses ranging from Anatomy to Tales of Terror, we've got you covered!

Register by May 8 for Spring and by June 19 for Summer

For more information or a calendar: Acadia University 902/ 585-1434 or 1-800-565-6568 Continuing and Fax: 902/ 585-1068 Distance Education

continuing.education@acadiau.ca hetp://conted.acadiau.ca

Willett House, 38 Crowell Dr. Wolfville, Nova Scotia BOP 1X0

ns anal IMEEM