When Camosun students pay their student fees, $2.25 goes toward membership in the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) and British Columbia Federation of Students (BCFS) every month. The fee is collected from students by the Camosun College Student Society (CCSS), which then splits the money in half and remit the funds to the two organizations. The BCFS and CFS are separate legal entities.
However, between 2014 and 2017, the CCSS was remitting Camosun students’ CFS fees to the BCFS; the total amount of the CFS fees that the CCSS remitted to the BCFS is $202,305.11. The BCFS says it is holding the Camosun students’ CFS fees because the CFS owes the BCFS approximately $1 million. The CFS says the BCFS has no right to be holding the fees, as Camosun students were told at the time the money was going to the CFS.
The BCFS did not respond to a request for comment about the current status of the money. CFS treasurer Peyton Veitch says there have been no changes to the situation.
Camosun students have put forth a petition to begin the process of defederating from the CFS; however, CFS members cannot defederate when fees are outstanding. So as long as the BCFS is keeping the Camosun student CFS fees, Camosun students will have to pay to be members in both organizations.