Opposition MLA Carl Urquhart says now is indeed a poor time to cut funding for the provincial Student Employment Experience Development (SEED) program.
The SEED program, as it is commonly known, has helped to provide summer employment for provincial students returning to post-secondary training programs in the fall.
In recent years, each riding of the province received several hundred hours of SEED funding, which translated into 25 to 30 student positions.
“This year we’ve been informed that we have been allocated 80 work weeks of funding, which means we can only assist about 10 students in finding employment under this program,” said Urquhart. “This is a poor time to cut back on the number of student jobs. The demand is still high and now more than ever, students need to have opportunities to make money to fund their continuing education.”
Urquhart said that in his own riding of York, which includes a number of small communities including McAdam and Harvey, the village offices have confirmed that they can use ten to 12 students for the summer.
