Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you committee members for listening to us.
My name is Jean-Patrick Brady. I am President of the Quebec Federation of University Students, which represents more than 120,000 university students in Quebec. We are the largest youth group in the province. We are present across the province, where we defend our members from the standpoint of a humanist education in order to defend accessible, high-quality education.
I will be very brief today on the various postsecondary education issues, at least in Quebec. As you have no doubt noticed in the various presentations of other groups, the problems are relatively similar. As we have been around for a number of years now, I believe it is important to review them. And I will do so in a concise manner.
Our presentation is based on various basic findings regarding postsecondary education.
In general, we wish to discuss, first, the high degree of competitiveness of our tax system, which enables us to remain internationally competitive. However, that may unfortunately have been achieved at the expense of individuals who are paying the price through the tax system. Although we enjoy strong economic growth, there are nevertheless problems in this area. I'm thinking in particular of social disparities and the system's lack of progressiveness.
A little more specifically regarding postsecondary education, we wish to discuss federal transfers for postsecondary education, tax credits for tuition fees and the various savings incentive programs: registered education savings programs, RESPs, the Canada Education Savings Grant, CESG, and learning bonds.
With respect to economic competition and fiscal solidarity, the student federation believes that, although businesses are increasingly interested in coming to Canada because of our system, which is a good thing, we must realize that there are problems with regard to personal tax rates. As a result, the government increasingly tends to take more revenue from the pockets of individuals, and not in a progressive manner. We think it would be important to return to a more progressive system that would enable the less advantaged to gain access to postsecondary education. I'll return to this point a little later. That would also permit better wealth distribution among the rich and the poor.
In postsecondary education, there is a lot of talk about economic growth and various adjustments to the tax system. One of the first things that must be considered is the importance of college education in Quebec and university education in Canada as a whole. For society, it is absolutely vital that the entire population has access to university, not merely its richest members. To that end, we need high-quality education that is accessible.
As regards high-quality education, it is very important for the federation that transfers are restored to levels prior to the cuts in the 1990s. That represents approximately $4.9 billion for Canada as a whole. We feel that federal transfers must return to what they were so that universities can face international competition. We all know that the universities of countries such as China and India are catching up to us and becoming highly competitive in terms of both quality and accessibility. It is therefore important to fund our universities adequately.
Now let's consider tax credits for tuition fees, education and textbooks. It must be understood that tuition fees are not the same from province to province in Canada. In that sense, our request is relatively very simple, that the federal government transfer to provinces with tuition fees below the Canadian average, as is the case in Quebec, financial compensation equal to the difference between the amount of credits paid to the province and the Canadian average. That financial compensation will of course have to be invested in the postsecondary education system.