I'd like to pursue the idea of our tax dollars paying for post-secondary education.
One of my grandmothers lived until she was 99. She regretted all her life that she couldn't get past high school, because our family didn't have the money to send anybody to university and my parents never had the opportunity to go to university. I think it's fair to say that for many people in Canada, the post-war generation was the first to be able to go to university. To me, it was a great democratization of our learning, which unleashed a lot of creativity and a lot of value to us, not only as an economy but also as a society.
I know that even though tuition fees have risen dramatically, so has registration at universities and colleges. It is higher today, I understand, than ever. I do have a concern about the squeeze on affordability. And Dr. Smith raised the issue of dental fees. Yes,I guess a student will earn all of those back once they are in the workforce, but boy, oh boy, together they're like a house mortgage when you start off your career.
At what point do you lose that balance between affordability and the democratization or accessibility of post-secondary education, so that the average family can aspire to have their kids go to post-secondary education?