Finance Committee on April 1st, 2014

[Brent Farrington]

Right now, as of this year, it's $6,000.

[Dave Van Kesteren, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON]

That's not 1,000%.

[Brent Farrington]

What?

[Dave Van Kesteren, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON]

That's not 1,000%.

[Brent Farrington]

There's a 1,000% increase across the board.

[Dave Van Kesteren, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON]

Okay, I may need you to clarify. I'm just a stickler on numbers because when we put this stuff in a report I want to know how you got to the 1,000%.

[Brent Farrington]

For the increase?

[Dave Van Kesteren, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON]

From $1,700 to $6,000.

[Brent Farrington]

In 1991, as an example, which is more than 15 years ago, we saw essentially tuition fee levels that were relatively low at $1,200 as an average, depending on weighted. At that point, obviously, Quebec's population was substantially larger as a share of the overall Canadian population.

[Dave Van Kesteren, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON]

So $1,200.... You said 15 years ago, so what is it now? You said, $6,000...?

[Brent Farrington]

The overall cost of an education has increased.

[Dave Van Kesteren, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON]

Okay, so you need to clarify that. What you're saying is that the overall cost, not the tuition, is—

[Brent Farrington]

Though tuition fees are increasing at a higher rate than any other expense.

[Dave Van Kesteren, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON]

Maybe you could just get us that information because this is important stuff, and we'd like to put this stuff into our report as well.

I want to go to you, Ms. Amyot. Mr. Keddy...we talked about this a little bit. We talked about the importance of.... It doesn't sound like you're too big on streamlining, but the Germans do that. They do it very well. We have—

[Denise Amyot]

I said they do good things; not all of it is good.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh.

[Denise Amyot]

I'll tell you two things that they don't do as well.

[Dave Van Kesteren, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON]

I'll get to my question and maybe you could just tell us how—because I think you participated in that mission—

[Denise Amyot]

Yes, I was there. In fact, Sarah was there, too.

[Dave Van Kesteren, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON]

What about the Canada job grant? Can you tell us a little bit about that? How is it important, and how is it going to help colleges? Are we headed in the right direction?

[Denise Amyot]

I talked about it earlier. In fact, I really think it's a move in the right direction pending the flexibility that is necessary. I mentioned the need to ensure that it is credential learning in order to ensure that the learners will be able to move from one place to the other and also the fact that there will hopefully be flexibility with respect to small and medium business. I really like the idea that was proposed to ensure that there would be a certain amount of money that could be put forward for youth.

But definitely, it is a step in the right direction.

[Dave Van Kesteren, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON]

So it's a move in the right direction.

How much time do I have, Chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

You have two and a half minutes.

[Dave Van Kesteren, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON]

Very quickly, you're right about the parents, but I'm going to give you an example. I sat down with a group of tradespeople and for the most part they were all men who are involved in the trades industry. I'm not convinced it's just universities. I'll tell you what happened. The conversation basically went this way.

We talked about other possibilities for young men. They're more interested in things like policing and firemen. I just want your comments on this, and I have some personal experience with that because I have sons who are policemen. They're well paid, there's no question.

[Denise Amyot]

Yes...very well.