Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
We would like to thank honourable members for giving us an opportunity today to present the recommendations of the Conseil national des cycles supérieurs of the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec regarding the government's budget for 2008-2009.
First of all, the CNCS-FEUQ is a semi-autonomous component of the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec, which represents 30,000 graduate students in Quebec and defends and promotes their interests to government and universities.
We completely share the objective of the Standing Committee on Finance to guarantee and maintain Canada's prosperity and economic growth. That is why we have two main recommendations: first of all, we think the 2008-2009 budget should increase federal transfers for post-secondary education. We also think that funding for university research should be increased.
We would like to establish the fact that in our view the tax system is not a good way of guaranteeing Canadian growth and prosperity.
In our opinion, the current tax system is one of the most competitive in the world, and this is not where the Canadian government could take action to guarantee our future growth. For example, current surpluses show that we definitely have the resources required to invest in post-secondary education. And that is what we are recommending to you today.
Although efforts have been made in recent years in past budgets to correct the fiscal imbalance, which still exists, in our opinion, there is still a $3 billion shortfall required by the provinces to meet their post-secondary education needs. We think this investment should be made this year, as soon as possible, so that we do not lose our advantage compared to the other OECD countries.
We also recognize that some worthy efforts have been made in past budgets regarding our second priority—increasing funding for university research. However, there are still some less successful areas, such as funding for the overhead costs of research and funding for social sciences and humanities research.
Funding for social sciences and humanities research at the federal level is provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. We think this council should get between 20% and 25% of the overall funding to the three federal granting councils.
The humanities and social sciences are traditionally underfunded in Canada and elsewhere. And, as my colleague mentioned earlier, this area is essential to the prosperity and well-being of Canadians.
As regards funding the overhead costs of research, all the stakeholders agree that 65% of funding is required in order to avoid a negative impact on the funding of research infrastructure. The Canadian Foundation for Innovation, among others, would be responsible for any negative impact of this type.
We think that our current growth level makes it possible to invest massively in education without increasing the tax burden borne by Canadians. And although this growth is a very good thing, it is based on factors that are quite fragile and unsustainable, including raw materials, in particular. We have everything to gain by investing more in post-secondary education, because it is the key to sustainable growth in Canada.
In fact, of the top ten countries on the world human development index—an index developed by the UN, I believe—half have opted to keep university education free. This provides maximum accessibility to universities. Of the ten countries, only Canada and the United States have done the opposite—have decided to keep tuition fees very high. We think that increasing federal transfers could be helpful in paving the way to greater accessibility to post-secondary education.
In conclusion, I would like to remind you of our recommendations. We would like the federal government to increase its transfers for post-secondary education by at least $3 billion in the 2008-2009 budget.
We would also like funding for 65% of the overhead costs, as are requesting all the people involved in research in Quebec. We would also like the federal government to increase the percentage of funding that goes to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada from 20% to 25% of the entire funding package received by the three granting councils.
Thank you. I look forward to your questions.