Good afternoon.
I appreciate the opportunity to represent colleges, institutes, CEGEPs and polytechnics.
Thank you to the federal government for your quick response, especially for your support for Canadian and international students.
Colleges and institutes also mobilized rapidly to shift to online delivery, support students and contribute to local efforts by donating equipment and deploying their research teams to help local companies retool operations. This rapid response has played out at colleges in your own communities, serving as a compelling reminder that 95% of Canadians and 86% of indigenous people live within 50 kilometres of a college campus.
Today I will focus on three recommendations needed in the short term.
First, in each of your ridings, you are watching local companies struggle to adapt, prepare for the new reality and reimagine their business models. Our members are seeing this too. They have solutions to offer and know how to help implement them. We recommend an investment of $165 million over two years, starting this August, to identify and respond rapidly to the range of applied research and technology solutions that SMEs and non-profits need to retool and pivot to succeed in the evolving and new economy.
I'm tabling with the committee our detailed submission developed in collaboration with our partners.
Second, I know that you are all aware of the important role that infrastructure investments will play in driving recovery in your own communities. Colleges and institutes have identified over $3.5 billion in shovel-ready projects, and we recommend in phase one a targeted investment in college and institute infrastructure to make our campuses more sustainable, more accessible for students with disabilities, more welcoming for indigenous students and more responsive to the innovation needs of your communities.
I am tabling a summary of our survey of infrastructure needs.
My third recommendation falls outside the scope of what federal MPs are accustomed to hearing from the post-secondary sector. Like other sectors and types of employers, the college sector has been hit hard by the crisis. While education is of provincial-territorial jurisdiction, colleges are only partially funded by their governments with virtually all institutions relying on funding from other sources such as corporate training and tuition from international students. Many institutions are projecting significant shortfalls. This means layoffs of faculty and staff.
CICan had a third party financial impact analysis done that projects losses and additional expenses over three scenarios. Just for 2020 to 2021, it ranged from $1.8 billion to the worst case of $3.5 billion. Over three years, in the worst-case scenario, losses of up to $8 billion are projected. Based on spring and summer data, the middle scenario is so far observed.
I have tabled with the committee the executive summary of this analysis.
Based on this analysis, we are asking that the federal government provide Canada's colleges and institutes with exceptional emergency funding of up to $3.3 billion. This funding will maintain and boost the capacity of colleges and institutes and ensure the college system can effectively support resumption and recovery.
In closing, you can be assured that colleges and institutes from coast to coast to coast will work with you to sustain our communities across the country.
Thank you.