Thank you. Good morning. My name is Chris Parsons and I'm the Nova Scotia national executive representative of the Canadian Federation of Students.
I want to thank the committee for this opportunity to present. I only have a few minutes today, so I would like to focus my remarks on a few key areas.
Canadians have long seen post-secondary education as a vehicle for social opportunity and yet low- and modest-income Canadians continue to be denied that opportunity because of costs. Tuition fees in Nova Scotia are at a staggering average of more than $6,500 per year, and the average student debt in the province has risen to more than $7,000 in just five short years, to reach more than $28,000, on average, for an undergraduate degree.
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 in the top earnings quartile. If Canada is going to reduce economic inequalities among provinces, as well as the inequalities among individuals in those provinces, and increase its competitiveness internationally, the Government of Canada must make affordable post-secondary education a priority.
The adoption of Bill C-48 was an excellent step forward to begin working to make post-secondary education in Nova Scotia more affordable; however, almost two years after its adoption, students have yet to see a penny of tuition fee relief. While the Conservative government reconfirmed its commitment to providing additional funding for post-secondary education, it significantly cut the money available and changed the focus from tuition fee reductions to infrastructure. While we agree that infrastructure is a problem in our province, its support should not come at the cost of continuing to neglect access. After all, it won't matter what sort of condition our buildings are in if no one can afford to study in them.
Additional funding for post-secondary education should not be a one-time investment. 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. This transfer formed part of the Conservative platform in the last federal election; however, there is no commitment to increasing funding. The federal government should return spending levels to at least 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 transfer 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 Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation, and $2.5 billion should have gone a long way to achieving those goals. Regrettably, the arm's-length foundation model of student financial assistance has proven to be a total and absolute failure. In Nova Scotia our provincial government simply replaced its own financial commitments with millennium scholarship money, meaning that students were no better off.
This fact alone is reason enough not to renew the foundation; however, the foundation's organizational culture makes the situation even worse. Its administrative costs have increased over 500% in the last six years, and literally millions of dollars have been funnelled into the Educational Policy Institute, an American outfit run by two former employees of the foundation. Many of those contracts were awarded without competition. The foundation is a case study in unaccountability and wasted Canadian tax dollars. Students need non-repayable grants. That's not the issue. The issue is how the Government of Canada administers grants, and the record is clear. The foundation has failed in doing this, and there is a better 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 Human Resources and Social Development Canada to administer grants through an accountable means, ensuring that students actually get the assistance they need.
Many students relied, as I did, on full-time jobs throughout the summer to help pay the cost of education. Unfortunately, because of recent cuts to the summer career placement program, many students may find themselves without employment. In the round of service cutbacks announced earlier this month, the Treasury Board saw fit to make a 50% funding cut to the summer career placement program. Not only do students with no prior career experience desperately need this program to gain work experience in their fields, but more importantly they need the program to pay the bills. Tuition fees are higher today than at any point in our province's history, even when accounting for inflation. Cutting a summer employment program for students will guarantee that many students will need to go deeper into debt and acquire more loans. We hope this committee can reverse the Treasury Board's job reduction strategy.
Due to time constraints, I am unfortunately unable to speak to all of our recommendations. However, you have been provided with our brief, and I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you about some of our concerns this morning.