Finance Committee on Oct. 6th, 2014

[Mark Adler, Conservative, York Centre, ON]

It's pretty fundamental. NIED needs to get funding in order to compile this data, because when people die of an eating disorder, it's not registered that they died of an eating disorder. It's heart failure, or liver failure, or whatever, so we don't know how many people.... We know it's a lot of people, but we don't know how many people actually have eating disorders, do we?

[Bill Rogers]

That's correct. We do not.

[Mark Adler, Conservative, York Centre, ON]

Which is an abomination, I think.

[Bill Rogers]

It is, absolutely, and it has fallen under the radar of our health care systems for too many years.

[Mark Adler, Conservative, York Centre, ON]

In terms of the treatment of eating disorders....

Let me step back for a second. You're not here asking for money for yourself or a need to conduct a study, are you?

[Bill Rogers]

No, we're not. We're asking for the money to be put into what could be a number of agencies, but something like the Public Health Agency of Canada could conduct this service. We want the data. We don't have to do it. We're not prepared to do it, but we need the data and we need the allocation of funds to do it.

[Mark Adler, Conservative, York Centre, ON]

Then step two is—

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you very much, Mr. Adler.

We'll go to Mr. Rankin, please, for five minutes.

[Murray Rankin, NDP, Victoria, BC]

Thank you to all witnesses.

I'd like to start with Jessica McCormick of the Canadian Federation of Students.

I was taken with your excellent brief. There are a few recommendations I'd like to have you elaborate on, but the one I'm thinking of is the one where you talk about implementing a federal post-secondary education act in cooperation with the provinces modelled after the Canada Health Act.

I wonder if you think that would do the trick. Given that the federal government has not exactly been aggressive in enforcing the Canada Health Act, why would you have any more confidence that they would do so if there were a post-secondary act like that?

[Jessica McCormick]

Canada is one of the only OECD countries that doesn't have a national ministry of education.

The situation right now in Canada is that there is a significant disparity in the tuition fees that are charged from province to province. It's a situation whereby students in Newfoundland and Labrador pay about $2,600 per year in tuition fees, whereas students in Ontario pay more than $7,000 per year.

The goal behind implementing a post-secondary education act is to provide some sort of consistency across the country and a level standard of access to post-secondary education, and to provide some accountability for transfer payments made to the provinces to ensure they're being invested as they were intended to be invested rather than the situation we have now where money is going to the provinces through the Canada social transfer, but it's often unclear whether or not that money is being spent as it was intended.

[Murray Rankin, NDP, Victoria, BC]

I think you mentioned in your presentation just now that in Newfoundland and Labrador the government has replaced the loan program entirely with a grants program. You're advocating that be done on a national basis, or that other provinces use the transfer to do the same thing.

[Jessica McCormick]

In both cases.... It's something we're advocating that provincial governments do with provincial student loans, but we're also advocating for an expansion of the national grants program that was introduced in 2008. In Newfoundland and Labrador it has been progressively expanded over the years and it was announced just this year that they would fully expand the grants program to replace the provincial student loans.

[Murray Rankin, NDP, Victoria, BC]

Do you have any information as to what that might cost?

[Jessica McCormick]

The information we have in our submission is to reallocate some of the money currently invested in registered education savings plans and tax credits into Canada student grants, because we currently invest about $2.5 billion per year in those programs.

[Murray Rankin, NDP, Victoria, BC]

You noted in your brief first nations and Inuit students and their post-secondary student support program, and you are asking for the cap on the increase that was implemented in the 1990s to be removed. Is that essentially it?

[Jessica McCormick]

Yes, in 1996 a 2% cap was placed on increases to the post-secondary student support program. As we've already discussed at the committee, the population growth of first nations and Inuit students far exceeds other demographics, so there are more students who want to access funding through that program but because of the cap are unable to access the funding.

[Murray Rankin, NDP, Victoria, BC]

Your statistic was shocking. You say that between 2006 and 2011, over 18,500 people were denied funding, roughly half of those who were qualified, because of that problem.

[Jessica McCormick]

That's correct.

[Murray Rankin, NDP, Victoria, BC]

Okay.

Chief Picard, in your brief you mentioned skills training and the need for new investment. I think you suggested half a billion annually over five years is needed to support that program.

Then you suggest that the government implement the recommendations made in the May report of the Standing Committee on Human Resources and Skills Development that there be a renewal of the aboriginal skills and employment training strategy for an additional five years.

Are you suggesting that the new investments of $500 million over five years be done under the umbrella of that strategy?

[Chief Ghislain Picard]

Yes. I think what is important here is to create some level of certainty in terms of what we should be planning for the next five years. I was part of the original program back in 1995. The negotiations we held at the time provided us with a program that went far beyond the three-year period. We had a five-year program. That certainly makes for easier planning than what we have today, where we're just unsure as to what will happen next year and the following year.

[Murray Rankin, NDP, Victoria, BC]

It's particularly poignant given the demographics of first nation communities and the number of children that are coming along and who will need education and training in the future.

[Chief Ghislain Picard]

Well, I think that proof needs not to be made anymore. It's evident right across the country.

[Murray Rankin, NDP, Victoria, BC]

Agreed.

Thank you, sir.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you, Mr. Rankin.

Colleagues, we have two members' rounds left of five minutes each. If we do that, we will go five minutes into the bell. It's a 15-minute bell. Do I have your consent to do that?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.