This election period, we’re asking for a $2 increase per full-time student each semester to support the continued existence of independent journalism on our campus
Graphic by Rae Dawson.
In 1999, Nunavut separated from the Northwest Territories, becoming Canada’s third territory. In 1999, a total solar eclipse was seen in Europe and Asia. In 1999, The Sopranos premiered on HBO, and at the end of the year, Russian president Boris Yeltsin resigned, leaving the role to the country’s current leader, Vladimir Putin.
Also in 1999, the Martlet pushed for its last fee increase.
For those of you who don’t know us yet, we’re UVic’s independent, fact-checked student newspaper. We’ve been around since 1948 — before UVic was UVic — reporting on stories that matter in our community. We became editorially, financially, and structurally independent from the UVSS in the 1990s. Most of our budget comes from student fees, but neither UVic, the UVSS, nor our own board of directors set those fees. You do.
This election period, we’re asking for a $2 fee increase per full-time student — approximately the price of one cup of coffee or tea at the Munchie Bar when you bring your own mug — and a $1 increase per part-time student to help support the continued existence of fact-checked, independent journalism on our campus.
In 1999, students voted via referendum to raise our student fee levy from $2.75 to $3.75 — the same amount it has remained for 27 years, longer than almost anyone on our current staff has been alive. Our fee has remained the same through major international conflicts, global pandemics, the 2008 financial crisis, and the invention of the iPhone.
It should go without saying that $3.75 in 1999 is not the same as $3.75 in 2026, but it can be challenging to visualize exactly how different those numbers are, so we’ve provided a few helpful statistics. According to the Bank of Canada’s inflation calculator, $3.75 in 1999 would be roughly $6.76 today, or an 80 per cent increase.
Printing costs have also only risen since our last fee increase, meaning we’ve had to reduce both volume and frequency of print copies over time to keep up. In December 2012, we paid just under $1 500 to print 5 500 copies of our newspaper, at 24 pages per copy. Oh, and we were printing it weekly. For this most recent print issue, we paid just over $1 000 — almost the same price, it’s true — but for 3 000 copies, at only half the number of pages.
Lastly, minimum wage in B.C. in 1999 was $7.15 per hour. As of June 2025, the province’s minimum wage is $17.85, a 149.6 per cent increase.
This is why we’re asking for a $2 increase to our fee. Because running even a small newsroom like ours, producing quality, fact-checked local news, providing meaningful paid opportunities to aspiring student journalists, and shedding light on important stories in our campus community, isn’t cheap.
Currently, our fee is among the lowest in the province. The Ubyssey, UBC’s independent student newspaper, collects $8.37 per student each year, while The Peak (SFU) collects $4.90 per full time student each semester, and the Capilano Courier (Capilano) collects $1.65 per credit from each student during the fall and spring terms, to a maximum of $24.75 per term. Students at Camosun College pay around $10 per year to fund their newspaper, Nexus.
Without a fee increase, we will continue to stagnate as we have over the last 27 years. It won’t mean the death of the Martlet overnight, but it will mean a continued decrease in the number of staff we can hire, the number of stories we can report on, and the decline of independent journalism when we need it most.
We believe that people do their best work when they are financially supported, and aren’t worrying whether they’ll make rent this month or be able to afford groceries. We want to provide more opportunities for student journalists on our campus, and to pay them a fair wage for the work they do.
If you are an undergraduate student at UVic, you can help make that possible, by voting “yes” during the UVSS Election period from March 4–6.
