Good morning. My name is Amanda, and I'm the national chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students.
I want to start by thanking the committee for this opportunity to present to you on behalf of more than half a million students from over eighty student unions across the country.
I have only a few minutes today, so I'd like to focus my remarks on a few key areas. You all have a translated version of our brief, and naturally I will be happy to take questions on issues that I don't have time to address during the next few minutes.
Canadians have long seen post-secondary education as a vehicle for social opportunity. The expansion of access to Canadian universities and colleges was a direct result of substantial and sustained public investment beginning in the 1950s. Prior to the mid-1950s, access to education in Canada was defined almost exclusively by gender and income. That changed because the federal government made access to education a fiscal priority.
However, many Canadians can't help but feel that we're sliding backwards. Tuition fees and student debt are now at the highest they have ever been. Statistics Canada reports that students from families with incomes in the lowest quartile are half as likely to participate in university as those students from families with top quartile earnings.
Upfront financial barriers, especially tuition fees, have created a profound participation gap among Canadian families. If Canada is going to reduce economic inequalities among regions and individuals, as well as increase its competitiveness internationally, the Government of Canada must prioritize affordable post-secondary education. It must support those provinces with tuition fee freezes and encourage such initiatives nationwide with the necessary fiscal commitments.
We recommend that the federal government, in cooperation with the provinces, create a dedicated post-secondary cash transfer payment for the purpose of reducing tuition fees and improving equality at universities and colleges across Canada. This transfer formed part of the Conservative platform during the last federal election. However, there is no commitment to increasing funding.
We recommend that the federal government return spending levels at least to 1993 levels, in real dollars. By most estimates, transfers currently fall short of 1993 levels by at least 20%, on a per capita basis.
In addition, this transfer should be guided by legislation or other binding forms of agreement that would establish conditions for the transfers and commit the provinces to upholding principles similar to those of the Canada Health Act.
In 1998, the federal government made an important commitment to reducing student debt and improving access to post-secondary education when it introduced the Millennium Scholarship Foundation. With $2.5 billion, it should have gone a long way to achieving those goals, but regrettably, the arm's-length foundation model of student financial assistance has proven to be a total failure.
Most provinces, as many of the committee members may know, simply reduced their own financial commitments with Millennium Scholarship Foundation money, meaning that students were not better off. This fact alone is reason enough for us to not renew the foundation.
However, the foundation's organizational culture confirms that it must not receive another cent of public funding. Its administrative costs have increased over 500% in the last six years, and literally millions of dollars have been funnelled to the Educational Policy Institute, an American outfit run by two former employees of the foundation. Many of these contracts are being awarded without competition. In our opinion, the foundation is a case study of unaccountability and wasted Canadian taxpayers' dollars.
This morning you heard a Millennium Foundation official make a passionate case for student financial assistance in the form of grants. However, we urge you not to be fooled. Students need non-repayable grants; this is not the issue. The issue is how the Government of Canada administers grants, and the record is clear. The foundation has failed in doing so, and there is a more effective way.
Therefore, we recommend that the federal government wind down the Millennium Scholarship Foundation and fund a national system of needs-based grants. Systems are already in place through HRSD to administer grants through an accountable means, ensuring students actually get the assistance they need.
I had intended on using my last sixty seconds to talk about tax expenditures, but another issue has developed recently that warrants this committee's close attention. In the round of service cutbacks announced earlier this week, the Treasury Board saw fit to make a 50% cut in funding for the summer career placement program. Not only do students with no prior career experience desperately need this program to gain work experience in their field, but, more importantly, they need this program to pay the bills.
As I stated earlier, tuition fees are higher today than at any point in Canadian history, even when accounting for inflation. Cutting a summer employment program for students will guarantee that many of the students with the greatest financial need will have to take out more loans and go deeper into debt. So I hope this committee can reverse the Treasury Board's job reduction strategy.
In closing, I want to emphasize the importance of higher education in increasing the standard of living and the economic health of our country.
Again, I want to thank you for this opportunity, and I look forward to your questions and the discussions.