Thank you, Ms. Town.
Through the chair, thank you to the committee. It is an honour to be here today. WUSA is one of nine members of Undergraduates of Canadian Research-Intensive Universities, or UCRU, which represents over 250,000 students across Canada. Last month, I had the privilege to work on a report drafted by UCRU that detailed our members' concerns about financial situations and recommendations for student support in response to COVID-19. I will detail some of my thoughts here today on the government's response where Ms. Town has not already covered them.
We have heard concerns from one of our member institutions about support for indigenous students, and we are hoping more information will be made available to provide clarity to them about what supports might be available. Currently, it is unclear to students whether support programs for indigenous students are complementary to the CESB or whether they are exclusive. More information about this and other programs, including the Canada student service grant, will be key as students plan out their summer.
Students are also concerned about the rising cost of tuition, especially as post-secondary programs are administered online. Years of decreases to public funding of post-secondary education by provincial governments has led to an increased financial vulnerability of institutions to drops of enrolment, especially international enrolment, a condition that we fear this crisis may bring. The vulnerable institutions are diverse in size and in geography. Therefore, we ask that the federal government collaborate with the leadership of post-secondary institutions, as well as provincial ministers of higher education, to explore what role the federal government may play to ensure universities' finances can weather this pandemic.
Students are concerned about being able to afford to continue school in September. For that reason we’d also like to mention that we see the increases to the Canada student grant program as stepping into that gap for most students in need, and we are incredibly grateful that these increases were included in the student aid package. However, student aid usually uses the previous year’s tax data, which may not account for how the income of a student’s parents or guardians may have been affected by COVID-19. We ask the government to investigate how to account for this in the fall 2020 Canada student grant disbursements.
Finally, an area of concern is with regard to eligibility requirements, which prevent students from accessing CESB if they have income even slightly in excess of $1,000 per month. In the event that CESB must be extended, which we hope will not be required, we suggest the government investigate a phase-out of the benefit for students earning above $1,000 in a more gradual fashion, while holding steady or increasing the $1,250 base amount.
On behalf of UCRU, I would like to convey our thanks for the government’s action, which we understand to be the largest one-time financial investment in student aid in history and proportional to the crisis that students face. We also hope that action can be taken on these outstanding priorities of international student inclusion, efficient and timely rollout, clear communication of information and coordination to support our post-secondary institutions. We have also provided some additional detail in our joint brief, which is still under translation and will be distributed to members in the coming days.
Thank you very much for your parliamentary service during this time, and for listening to students’ concerns. Both Ms. Town and I look forward to your questions.