We obviously recognize that post-secondary education is a provincial jurisdiction. However, we also think that, given the federal government's commitment to enhance the vitality of the communities and support strong institutions across the country—that commitment is set forth in the Official Languages Act—it can nevertheless play a role in education. It can use its spending power to establish measures to support and sustain the post-secondary education sector.
Here's the concern we have regarding cooperation with the provinces. We at ACUFC have relations with seven or eight departments; we don't just work with the Department of Canadian Heritage. Positive measures could be created in a whole range of departments. They could be perceived as the responsibility of the provinces, but they would have been introduced by the federal government in the hope of contributing directly to the vitality of the communities.
If we rely too much on cooperation with the provinces in introducing positive measures, we could wind up deploying those measures unequally across the country. In other words, positive measures would apply in certain provinces, but not in others. Some post-secondary institutions would benefit from those measures, whereas others wouldn't, and the institutions would be competing with each other as a result of that uneven deployment. They won't have the same power to act if they don't have access to positive measures designed by the federal government but rejected by the provinces.
We have to develop the right vocabulary to ensure that measures are fairly deployed in cooperation with the provinces. We could come up with a mechanism to ensure the provinces are aware of the positive measures introduced so they aren't surprised. That mechanism might be a specific forum or space where the provinces and territories can discuss issues with the post-secondary institutions. In short, there has to be a better arrangement to prevent the provinces from resisting and ultimately rejecting positive measures introduced in their jurisdiction.