Evidence of meeting #25 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was students.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Dental Hygienists Association
Yes. Thank you very much.
I don't know if I have, off the top of my head, the actual regional disparities in terms of access to care, but I can get back to you with that information.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bobby Morrissey
Thank you, Madame Larouche.
Madame Love, if you could provide an answer to Madame Larouche's question in writing to the committee, that would be good.
We'll now move to Mr. Reynolds for five minutes.
Mr. Reynolds, you have the floor.
Conservative
Colin Reynolds Conservative Elmwood—Transcona, MB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you very much, witnesses, for coming today. I know this is an early one.
Mr. Sangster, you published an article on February 6 on National Newswatch, in which you mentioned:
[S]tudents enrolled in two-year programs at regulated career colleges will no longer be eligible for the Canada Student Grant for Full-Time Students, instead needing to rely on repayable loans.
Student financial assistance should empower choice, not restrict it. Canadians need the flexibility to select training that fits their schedules, family responsibilities, and career goals without penalty because of institution type. When grants disappear, choice narrows, access shrinks, and workforce gaps widen.
Among the workforce gaps you mentioned were health care, skilled trades and construction, and technology and digital skills. Which of these sectors do you think will be most adversely affected by this change in the budget?
Chief Executive Officer, National Association of Career Colleges
That's an interesting question.
It will go across all of our member colleges in the programs they teach that are over one year and into a second year. I think we'll face challenges in nursing, dental assistance, dental hygiene, early childhood education specifically, and some of the skilled trades areas for those programs that go longer.
It will be across many of our programs. That's why we've offered to work with the federal government on finding unique situations and changes that would be more equitable across all institutions. If the goal is to save cash, if it's a fiscal restraint issue, let's look at doing it across all institutions, not by institution type.
In the quote you read, I talk about some of the issues of our students and why they choose our colleges. I mentioned it in our opening remarks, but it's often around the time of training available to them—nights, evenings, weekends and from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the day on Monday to Friday, so they can have their kids at night and work in the morning. That's one of the reasons we have a challenge with this. That's why our schools are successful: We meet the needs of our students.
Conservative
Colin Reynolds Conservative Elmwood—Transcona, MB
Touching on that, what do career colleges offer that conventional post-secondary institutions don't?
Chief Executive Officer, National Association of Career Colleges
I think it's that faster program, in many cases; smaller class sizes; and a more agile, nimble program that gets people trained quickly.
We've always been very attached to the workforce part of the training, where they have a practicum placement. They work with an employer. They work with someone who already does the job, so when they graduate, they're job-ready. That's one of the main reasons we've seen that 81% of our graduates, according to a recent Nanos study, worked in jobs directly or closely related to the studying they did. That's one of our greatest success stories.
Conservative
Colin Reynolds Conservative Elmwood—Transcona, MB
Thank you.
Do you think this government invested adequate research and consultation into this issue prior to making this decision?
Chief Executive Officer, National Association of Career Colleges
I think it's a good question. I can't really answer, because I'm not familiar with the work they did to do the research.
I will say this. We're asking again, today, to be at the table, to be part of all the conversations. We participate in NAGSFA, the National Advisory Group on Student Financial Assistance. We're willing to meet anytime, anywhere, with government officials. We work with provincial regulators. We work with provincial student financial aid people to make sure our programs are understood.
Conservative
Colin Reynolds Conservative Elmwood—Transcona, MB
We just recently did a study in HUMA on youth unemployment and the youth unemployment crisis here in Canada. It seems to be a growing crisis. Do you think that these changes will affect the youth unemployment crisis?
Chief Executive Officer, National Association of Career Colleges
They will. They're going to harm...we're going to have fewer students able to choose our institutions to train. We've shown in the data that we did, and I'm happy to provide the committee with the recent Nanos report, that student aid is a crucial part of students' decisions to take our programs.
I want to go back to the ones we're talking about today. These are over a year. They're provincially regulated and approved. Not all, but most of them are third party accredited programs. The kinds of positions we talk about that we're all concerned about, such as nursing and dental hygienists, are all third party accredited.
Conservative
Colin Reynolds Conservative Elmwood—Transcona, MB
I was going to ask you to expand on that, but you already did.
Conservative
Colin Reynolds Conservative Elmwood—Transcona, MB
In your opinion, do you think it's going to get worse?
Chief Executive Officer, National Association of Career Colleges
I don't believe this will help us.
I have to applaud the government for the recent loan forgiveness program for rural communities. That will help. That will encourage more people to go out into those rural communities, with full loan forgiveness, and that's going to make an impact in some of these roles. That's a crucial decision the government's taken, but the cumulative effect of some of these decisions is starting to wear down our sector.
I'll just remind you, our members don't take government funding, except for student aid and sometimes grants. Sometimes they directly fund tuition for programs when there's high need, like for personal support worker training in Ontario when we stepped up during COVID.
Our members invest their own capital and take their own risk, so anything that makes it more difficult to operate will be a challenge for our sector.
Liberal
Liberal
Jessica Fancy-Landry Liberal South Shore—St. Margarets, NS
Thank you so much, Ms. Love and Mr. Sangster, for being here today.
I took tons of notes. Predominantly, I've been an educator for almost two decades before coming into this role in the spring. I'm also from a rural coastal community. A lot of what we've discussed today, in terms of the national school food program and loan forgiveness for rural and remote communities, are things I'd really like to highlight.
I want to also say thank you very much, Ms. Love, for wanting to be a stakeholder in the national food program, as we as a government try to strengthen the supports and structures for this program that is getting a lot of national attention.
I know in Nova Scotia right now I have 157 kids who are registered for that program, whom we're hoping to feed. I know my colleagues across the way...I have 58,000 students in Alberta who are registered for that program. The thing that really gets me about all of this is that we have people like yourselves here as witnesses today, who are saying, these programs that the government is putting together are great programs, and we want to help strengthen them, and it's flabbergasting that every time we go to a vote, the Conservatives are voting against it.
On a positive note, it was really nice for my colleague across the way this morning to give his props to the Canadian dental care plan, so I'm hoping that if that comes to a vote ever again, you do have a conscience and vote for the program.
Liberal
Jessica Fancy-Landry Liberal South Shore—St. Margarets, NS
That being said, I would really love to ask you, as well, about the progress—
Conservative
Liberal
Jessica Fancy-Landry Liberal South Shore—St. Margarets, NS
Thank you very much, colleague.
Ms. Love, to not divert, I would love to ask you about progress within the Canada food program and our vision that all children and youth have access to nutritious, inclusive, local and culturally appropriate food at schools.
I'm wondering, do you have any measures or suggestions that you could give us to help strengthen and grow that program, with a lens for oral care and nutrition?
Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Dental Hygienists Association
We certainly would be happy to participate, and have dental hygienists participate, in any studies or recommendations on having nutritious, tooth-friendly and nutrient-dense food that will enhance the oral health cavity.
Also, as an educator, you understand that it's oral health education. It's about preventing disease. It's about tooth-brushing, and there also could be some oral health education programs within the nutrition programs, in terms of oral health care programs. We did, back in the day, have dental hygienists going to schools and providing that care, but in most communities, that's been cut. It's still around for a few communities across the country.
I'm happy to participate in any way we can to support the program.
Liberal
Jessica Fancy-Landry Liberal South Shore—St. Margarets, NS
Wonderful.
Let's talk about financial assistance now. From the perspective of a regulated health care professional, how important do you feel it is that financial assistance is aligned with accredited programs that meet Canadian professional and patient safety standards?
Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Dental Hygienists Association
Financial assistance is a key need. Our dental hygiene students are so excited about the new student loan forgiveness program. They think it's really going to help them in terms of working in those communities, committing to those communities and helping their financial viability. Dental hygiene is very expensive. It's very expensive because of the clinical component of the program. Those types of government programs are meaningful.
We lobbied for about 10 years for that program, and we're very excited that it's going to start. We'll have to measure it. There have to be measures in place to see how many are going to use it. We've already heard anecdotally from many students that they're going to go to those communities that are under 30,000 to provide care.
Liberal
Jessica Fancy-Landry Liberal South Shore—St. Margarets, NS
I know I'm running out of time there, Chair.
When the program began to roll out—I always do communication or informative things for all my constituents—I received a really nice email back from a young oral care professional, saying how much this is not only helping her and her family but also giving her the choice to live in a rural coastal community.
I'm wondering if you could highlight the importance...and what you're hearing back from some of the people within your alliance.
