Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Ladies and gentlemen, perhaps I could tell you at the outset that the Fédération des cégeps is a free and voluntary association of Quebec's 48 Cegeps. In fact, it is the Quebec counterpart of the community colleges in the rest of the country. Enrolment at our institutions totals 150,000 young men and women and approximately 50,000 adults.
It must be clearly understood that our concern is over the issue of transfer payments for postsecondary education. Committee members must know that, at this time, we estimate that the chronic underfunding of our colleges amounts to $305 million.
Let me cite some examples. Today, in Quebec City and Montreal, year in and year out, 5,000 men and women are unable to attend our colleges to take retraining or development courses. We are waiting to implement new programs, such as the technical electrical engineering program, which has been revised and should be introduced in all our cegeps. That costs $70 million.
So we feel that our financial difficulties are extremely significant at this time. Quebec's colleges are 86% funded by the Quebec government, compared to 53% for the universities. Unfortunately, we have virtually no federal funding at our disposal; funding for the universities is 13%. There are no tuition fees at Quebec's cegeps, whereas Quebec universities receive tuition fees.
Our message today is clear: in the next federal budget, we would like there to be a clear resolution of the fiscal imbalance and, consequently, transfers for postsecondary education.
I would like to remind committee members that it was in Quebec City, in December 2005, that Mr. Harper promised to correct the fiscal imbalance. On January 12 of this year, in a signed letter to the President of the Federation Council at the time, Mr. Klein, he made a commitment to create a Canada education and training transfer. In the federal Throne Speech, there was a formal commitment to solve the problem of fiscal imbalance. That commitment was also reiterated in Mr. Flaherty's first budget last April. And, lastly, Mr. Harper solemnly told Quebeckers, before the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal, that his government would solve the fiscal imbalance problem. He also told the people of the colleges and universities that his government would solve the problem of transfers for postsecondary education.
As I said at the press conference this morning, it is clear in our minds that the time has come to deliver the goods. The government must genuinely shift from words into action and, in the next federal budget, restore the transfer to its 1994-1995 level, plus $2.2 billion current, $4.9 billion constant. We must correct, once and for all, for our colleges and universities, the problem of fiscal imbalance, the problem of transfers for postsecondary education. Let me repeat it before committee members: the goods must actually be delivered, and, in the coming days, weeks and months, we will be constantly watching the government so that the prime minister delivers the goods and meets the commitments he made in this city.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.