Good afternoon. Thank you for this opportunity to appear today.
The Canadian Alliance of Student Associations represents approximately 300,000 students enrolled in Canadian universities and colleges.
One must not look too far to appreciate the importance of post-secondary education within Canadian society. It develops an active, engaged, and productive citizenry, and it provides important career and monetary benefits to those who can access it.
Higher learning also has a central role in developing a healthy and prosperous economy. The role of higher learning in the Canadian economy will become increasingly prominent when Canada faces the impending labour crisis. In twenty years, the government forecasts that retirees will outnumber new workers by four to three. Although you have heard a lot of groups comment on research funding today, in order for Canada to compete in the global knowledge economy, the emphasis must be placed on the need for more highly educated graduates and skilled workers.
CASA believes that the federal government can effectively deal with the coming labour crunch if it fulfils two important roles. Number one would be to demonstrate government leadership by increasing federal funding, with the emphasis on access. The federal government cannot solve Canada's post-secondary problems without the collaboration of the provinces. This is why CASA believes that the federal government should work with the provincial and territorial leaders to build a pan-Canadian accord on post-secondary education.
Now is the time to build such an accord, as provincial and territorial leaders appear keen to do so. At the completion of the Council of the Federation's stakeholders summit in Ottawa in February, premiers agreed that post-secondary education is a national issue that requires a national will to address it.
The federal government should also demonstrate leadership in working with provinces and territories to review Canada's student financial aid system. The current system is doing a poor job of making education more affordable and accessible. In order for Canada to have a highly educated and skilled workforce, we cannot simply rely on educating those who traditionally go on to post-secondary. Those from low-income families and aboriginal Canadians are significantly underrepresented in our colleges and universities. This must change.
CASA is calling on the government to develop a plan to improve the participation of underrepresented students, especially aboriginal peoples, in post-secondary education. We need a student financial aid system that helps those who need it most. The problem with our current system is that there's a serious lack of cohesion and vision. The biggest expenditure on student financial aid in Canada is not loans or grants but untargeted initiatives such as tax credits and savings programs that are available to anyone, regardless of income or need.
The second role the federal government must fulfil in order to improve Canada's post-secondary system is increasing its fiscal contributions to the system. Our post-secondary system has been suffering from underfunding for over a decade. The province has been forced to cut support to colleges and universities. In turn, institutions have had to raise tuition, increase class sizes, and hold off on urgent maintenance. Tuition is now at an average of nearly $5,000, and the average student debt is over $35,000 when accounting for interest.
The government should make good on its election promise to create a dedicated Canada education and training transfer. In order to restore funding to the levels they were before the major cuts in the mid-1990s, CASA believes that such a dedicated transfer should be set at a minimum of $4 billion.
The federal government must also invest in targeted assistance to students who are underrepresented in our universities and colleges. CASA is calling on the government to expand the Canada access grant for students from low-income families. The current grant should provide assistance for all years of study instead of only the first year, and it should cover the realistic cost of the total cost of education.
Finally, for the past eight years, the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation has played an important role in improving the accessibility and affordability of post-secondary education. As you will hear before the conclusion of these committee sessions, the diverging positions of the many groups testifying will make it clear that the foundation is not without some controversy. Rest assured that the over 90,000 bursaries and $350 million that the foundation provides to students in high need each year is desperately needed in the system. Students of Canada worry that this assistance will disappear when the mandate of the foundation expires in 2009. CASA is calling on the federal government to renew the mandate of the foundation.
Canadians expect and deserve a high-quality post-secondary education system that allows all to have the opportunity to realize their full potential.
The Canadian Alliance of Student Associations believes that our suggestions today for the federal budget are reasonable and will help make this a reality.
Thank you.