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 McGuinty Liberal government brought in a fully-funded tuition fee freeze at public colleges and universities in April, 2004, they announced a sweeping review of public post-secondary education was to take place.

In the summer of 2004, the government announced who would undertake the review. Former Ontario Premier Rae was named to head the review, much to the chagrin of many students and unions who had seen his term as Premier include a 57% hike in tuition fees and the elimination of needs-based grants, not to mention inadequate funding. As a backup to the Premier, a seven member advisory panel was announced: Leslie Church, Ian Davidson, Bill Davis, Don Drummond, Inez Elliston, Richard Johnston and Huguette LaBelle. Though the motley panel included a former Conservative Premier, a young Liberal and a former Liberal Advisor to the Federal Government, and even a former NDP leadership rival of Bob Rae's, none of the panellist's were at all noted for supporting frozen or reduced tuition fees.

Rae toured the province in fall of 2004, hosting many town-halls and roundtables, and was criticised widely for having pre-drawn conclusions before his consultations even began. Quotes to the media as early as May 2004 had Rae speculating about the total deregulation of tuition fees.

Ultimately, when the report was released, it called for deregulation of tuition fees, and the introduction of a regressive 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 (the kind that Bob Rae himself had eliminated in the early 1990's) for students who come from households with an income of less than $22,000 per annum.