Thank you.
The Canadian School Boards Association represents school boards across the country. Our members are the provincial school board associations that provide direct support to boards that in turn govern the range and quality of educational services in Canada's public schools. We are, at the level of democracy, responsible for the development of Canada's most precious resource. Elected trustees represent Canadian communities, Canadian taxpayers, including the 70% of the population who do not have children in school. As a result, they must be committed to high-quality education for every child and a well-educated Canadian citizen.
Our submission contains six areas worthy of federal action or need for cooperation with other levels of government: the goods and services tax, immigrant and refugee children, first nations education, national emergency support for such situations as soaring energy prices, federal support for provincial efforts in early childhood learning enhancement, and copyright legislation.
I will be brief and focus on the GST, immigrant and refugee children, first nations education, federal support for early childhood learning enhancement, and copyright.
On the GST, transfer payments indirectly support education throughout our country. Through equalization, the federal government also ensures that the provinces have the fiscal capacity to ensure a quality level of education. It works, as Canadian students rank among the best in the world; however, school boards are struggling to maintain that quality. They're routinely forced to rob Peter to pay Paul, juggling special needs students against repairs as their budgets become leaner and less discretionary.
When the GST was imposed it came as a burden that exacerbated these struggles. We ask you to stop this clawback of transfers that you provide and eliminate the GST on school board purchases.
During last year's pre-budget process, the CSBA raised the issue of improving federal support for immigrant and refugee families. We recently launched a national consultation process. Our draft paper, “Meeting the Language Learning and Settlement Needs of Immigrant Children and Youth in Canada's School System”, developed through extensive discussion with school boards, has also been sent to the federal minister. Our provincial associations are consulting with provincial governments, and we shall have a final paper shortly. But we have some early conclusions and recommendations.
Number one, there need to be interprovincial collaboration and federal-provincial-municipal partnerships with school boards. The early stages of the Canada-Ontario agreement are promising and show a high degree of collaboration.
Two, there are programs that work. The federal settlement workers in schools program is extremely successful. Its expansion could have an even greater impact on how well and how quickly families integrate. Intergovernmental partnerships with school boards would ensure that no one slipped through the cracks and would deliver the right services to the right people at the right time.
Last year we also expressed our concerns about the achievement gap in first nations education. The CSBA national office has begun working with the Assembly of First Nations, and our provincial associations are working with first nations authorities in their regions. The CSBA focus is on students in our jurisdiction--public schools.
There are examples of successes, such as the agreement in British Columbia and the partnership between the Saskatchewan School Boards Association and the Office of the Treaty Commissioner. These examples also show that the cookie-cutter approach won't work. No two provinces are alike, and first nations are not homogeneous. Let the grassroots lead.
We'd also like to ask the federal government to fully support first nations communities in developing their own capacity to deliver high-quality education.
Research solidly shows that investing in children in their early years represents a powerful investment. A child’s readiness to learn in grade 1 is the single strongest predictor of how a child will do in every grade, and indeed throughout life. Our paper cites a few of these studies.
Every province, depending on their internal structures, geography, and demographics, has different ways of supporting early learning enhancement. We ask the federal government to support individual provinces in how they approach the development of their young citizens.
Can I have about ten more seconds?