Northern Light
Superstar
Does it matter though?
The deficit needs to be taken care of before we embark on more nice to have spending. The post secondary world is a money pit - no reason to expand campuses in other municipalities just so they can say we have a university.
Lets separate out the arguments on the need to slay the deficit vs this particular spending decision.
The latter is open to some nitpicking as seen below, but the deficit is not suitable rationale.
If the province raised the HST by 2 points, only back to where the total tax was before the Harper cuts (15%) and the exact same move Quebec made as did every maritime province..........the deficit would be all but wiped out by the new revenue.
That's the much more efficient route to slaying the debt.
Once were back at balance, it's fair to weight different spending priorities both within a given area (in this case education) and also other potential areas of investment such a social services, transit or health.
This decision did not follow that logic.