Rae Report

The Rae Report was the result of a provincial review of post-secondary education led by former Ontario Premier Bob Rae. After the Liberal government of Dalton McGuinty brought in a fully funded tuition fee freeze at public colleges and universities in April 2004, it announced a sweeping review of public post-secondary education was to take place.

In the summer of 2004, the government announced that Rae was to head the review. As a backup to the former premier, a seven member advisory panel was announced: Leslie Church, Ian Davidson, Bill Davis, Don Drummond (economist), Inez Elliston, Richard Johnston and Huguette LaBelle. Bill Davis was a Progressive Conservative and former Education Minister and Premier of Ontario. Don Drummond is currently a Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the Toronto-Dominion Bank. Richard Johnston was formerly a leadership rival to Rae at the 1982 Ontario NDP convention. The panel also included a young Liberal and a former adviser to the federal government.

Rae toured the province in fall of 2004, hosting many town-halls and roundtables.

The final report called for deregulation of tuition fees and the introduction of a scheme to finance university and college education - income-contingent loan repayments. The report also called for an increase in public funding of colleges and universities - about half of what had been cut in the past decade, as well as upfront grants for students who come from households with an income of less than $22,000 per annum.

Rae's appointment was opposed by many students, who had seen his government permit a 57% increase in tuition fees and the elimination of need-based grants. (The Rae administration cut back on social services as a whole in the early nineties to reduce the deficit caused by the recession.) The composition of the advisory panel also came under fire as none of its members had a record of support for reduced or frozen tuition fees.

...
Wikipedia