Mr. Speaker, the government is stating, by introducing Bill C-5, that it is a key priority to have more people access post-secondary education. I sit on the aboriginal affairs committee and we have heard our Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development say that one of his number one priorities is to get more aboriginal students into post-secondary education, so as to give them the administrative capacity to lead their people out of poverty.
As of January 1 this year any tuition money or living costs given by a first nation to an aboriginal student to go to university will in fact be taxed. This is a first. This is new. The government will begin taxing these benefits and the predictable result will be that the student will have less money to pay for income costs associated with being at university and the first nation will be able to send fewer aboriginal students to university.
Would the member, in his background and knowledge on post-secondary education, share the view that it is completely contrary to getting more aboriginal students into university by taxing their tuition and living costs paid by the community which sent them?