TORONTO, Aug. 16 /CNW/ - The McGuinty government and the Canada

Millennium Scholarship Foundation will provide about 16,000 first-year college

and university students from low-income Ontario families with grants of up to

$3,000 toward their education, Chris Bentley, the Ontario Minister of

Training, Colleges and Universities, and Norman Riddell, executive director

and chief executive officer of the foundation, announced today.

    "This new grant is part of the package of improvements to financial aid

for students included in Reaching Higher - the McGuinty Government Plan for

Postsecondary Education," Bentley told students at the University of Toronto.

"This program is a significant part of our plan to make it easier for 135,000

low- and middle-income students to get a postsecondary education. We are

pleased the foundation is helping us achieve our goal."

    Starting this year, up to 16,000 students entering their first year of

college or university will benefit from the Millennium-Ontario Access Grant.

This is a $100-million, joint initiative by the Ontario government and the

foundation, marking a shift in student financial aid by delivering more

resources to students with the lowest family income. It will provide eligible

students up to half the cost of their tuition to a maximum of $3,000. When

combined with the Canada Access Grant - the federal government's new

low-income grant - these students can receive up to $6,000, or the full cost

of their first year of tuition.

    "Our organization has been looking at ways to improve access of students

from low-income families to postsecondary education," said Riddell. "Over the

four-year course of this project, we will be testing whether providing

low-income students with more non-repayable grants improves their presence in

postsecondary education."

    The foundation will provide $76 million over four years to support the

Millennium-Ontario Access Grant, with the remainder paid by the province. The

new grant is in addition to the $108 million in Millennium bursaries the

foundation has been distributing annually to Ontario students since 2000.

    "Future graduates will play an important role in Canadian society, both

socially and economically," said Belinda Stronach, Minister of Human Resources

and Skills Development and Minister responsible for Democratic Renewal. "The

Government of Canada is proud to partner with the Canada Millennium

Scholarship Foundation and the Government of Ontario to help students reach

their full potential and acquire the skills they need to meet their career

objectives."

    The Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation is a private, independent

organization created by an Act of Parliament in 1998. Since its inception, the

foundation has awarded more than $1.7 billion in the form of more than 550,000

bursaries to Canadian postsecondary students. In Ontario, more than 210,000

bursaries were distributed over the same period at a value of more than

$638million.