Thank you.
I'm also the Director General of Collège Édouard-Montpetit, the largest Francophone cegep in Quebec. I'm here today with Ms. Nicole Rouillier, Director General of Cégep Marie-Victorin. Both of us are members of the board of the Association of Canadian Community Colleges. I am chairman of the board.
Last February, the council held the Pancanadian Summit on Postsecondary Education and Skills Training. At the summit, the provincial premiers, ministers of education, postsecondary education stakeholders and the universities and colleges unanimously reaffirmed that it was important that the colleges and universities have resources enabling them to meet the training needs of youths and adults.
To that end, five priorities were established: promote greater access to postsecondary education—and the country needs that kind of measure; improve and guarantee quality of training and succession; update infrastructures, particularly technological infrastructures; improve access to the labour market for groups such as immigrants, Aboriginal people and persons with disabilities; improve the skills of persons already in the labour market and develop the research and innovation sectors.
The drop-out rate is high among high school students in Quebec and Canada. Many young people are not receiving postsecondary education or occupational training. And yet our country is oriented toward the knowledge economy. It is therefore clear that, as citizens, we must ensure that the largest possible number of young people and adults receive training that qualifies them and opens the doors of the labour market for them.
That said, as you will no doubt guess, we strongly support the Association of Colleges. It has already appeared before the Finance Committee, as have the Fédération des cégeps and all the provincial associations, which are asking the federal government to reinvest in postsecondary education and to ensure that those amounts enable Canadian colleges to provide training that meets the needs of young people and adults.
It is important that we move into action. To that end, the Association is making six recommendations. First, naturally, we must be able to develop a comprehensive pan-Canadian Work Force Development Agenda. We lack skilled labour in businesses. However, many young people are not receiving technical and occupational instruction. In that sense, we have a gap to fill and we must ensure that funding is available to provide this training. Furthermore, we must immediately reinvest in Canadian prosperity, that is to say guarantee the quality of postsecondary instruction and broaden access to it.
We also recommend that the federal government create, in the context of what is called the Canada Social Transfer, a transfer for postsecondary education at the 1992-1993-1994 level. The purpose here is to ensure that these amounts go to postsecondary education. We all know that the most meaningful investment that a country, developed or otherwise, can make is in its education.
We also recommend that there be a new Canadian system of financial assistance that responds more to the problem of student indebtedness. The Association recommends that a fund be created to improve technological infrastructure so as to ensure that our students are well trained and that that training meets the needs of the businesses that employ them. We need national funding to update our infrastructures and buildings.
We also recommend the creation of a research development and commercialization support fund. Colleges are increasingly conducting research. So it is important that we be able to update that research, which is in fact applied research. It enables businesses, particularly small and medium-size businesses, to gain access to research activities which they otherwise could not access.
Lastly, I would remind you that the Association of Canadian Community Colleges represents 150 colleges. I am sure that each of you has one in your riding. We are in more than 1,000 communities across the country. I am delivering this message on behalf of the 150 colleges that represent nearly one million students across the country so that, with the next budget, we can obtain funding reserved for college instruction. The objective is to better respond to the training needs of our youth and adults who need to retrain.
Thank you.