Thank you, Chair.
I want to thank my colleague, Mr. Regan.
This is very important. In my view, this is one of the most important things we can do, particularly for students. When I look at the issue of post-secondary education in Canada, I think one can make both an economic case for something like this--an economic case that, for the country, we have to maximize the human potential of all Canadians--and a social justice case for the individual. People need an opportunity to maximize their own skills to better take part in the wealth that is Canada.
Of course, Mr. Regan comes from Nova Scotia, as I do, where we have the distinction of having the highest tuitions in Canada. Tuitions are somewhere in the area of $6,000, on average. It's higher than that in some jurisdictions. When I graduated from Dalhousie University, my tuition in the last year was $1,170. Mr. Regan is much older than I am, so I suspect that the tuition was even less when he went, making the gap more significant compared to the current day.
Today we saw the release of information from the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation. They talked about how tax credits are criticized and how money is more effective as loans or grants. I think if we're really going to get at the heart of the issue, the issue is how we get people into university or community college--post-secondary education overall--who otherwise wouldn't go.
Tinkering with the tax system helps some students a small amount. It is $80 on textbooks, but $80 on a tuition of $6,000 or $7,000 is pretty small potatoes.
I wonder if you could just expand a little bit on the benefit of investing directly in needs-based grants as opposed to tax measures.