The point I was trying to make was that up-front student financial assistance is the most effective measure for student financial aid. From our perspective a broad-based system is absolutely necessary, and currently what exists in the country is not a national system of needs-based grounds; we do not have a comprehensive system of financial assistance.
However, the Canada access grants, when introduced, were certainly a measure we supported in terms of the way they were structured within the government coffers rather than in this private foundation that had been set up on the past. Certainly on this idea that there needs to be some consistent financial assistance to students who are wanting to participate in post-secondary education, that assistance needs to be up front, not as a back-end measure.
I don't have specific numbers now, but I think some members alluded earlier to the fact that study after study commissioned by Statistics Canada shows when youth identify barriers to post-secondary education, financial barriers are among the top barriers that they identify, so certainly there needs to be something done at the time that students are paying for their education and paying for their costs to learn.
By no means is this a perfect solution for students who need assistance, but at least it's a measure in the interim when this committee needs to be discussing a broad-based system of national financial assistance.