I thank you very much for the question, Mr. Drouin.
We welcome the announcement of the funds, as this is the first time, to our knowledge, that a budget envelope has been dedicated to post-secondary institutions. In our view, the federal and provincial governments need to negotiate how these funds are distributed. Since education is a provincial jurisdiction, the provinces initially invest very large amounts of money to support post-secondary institutions, but we know that this is not enough. In fact, many of our members have testified before this committee and they have not hesitated to say that we need to stabilize post-secondary institutions; we need to give them the capacity to act while being pillars in their communities and supporting the vitality of their communities.
However, it is not the funds that are the problem at present, as there is a promise of funds specifically for post-secondary institutions. Instead, the mechanism needs to be overhauled because it is not working. Our members have been telling us this for years, and we've seen it. I think even Canadian Heritage realizes that many elements of this mechanism do not work. So it's a well-known fact.
We recommend that both levels of government have a good discussion about this and thoroughly review this mechanism so that it can work properly. Some members have already told me that they would have liked to apply for a particular project or for funding, but were told by the province that it did not have a match to offer as it had already paid one.
It should be noted that our member institutions use the provincial matching funds to cover their operating costs. The provinces tell the institutions to use the money they give them. This means that when an institution wants to do a $400,000 project, it only gets $200,000 from the federal government, and it doesn't necessarily get any other money from the province. They're always caught in this bind, which makes it really difficult. Also, the funds are given for one-time projects. These are the two things that make the mechanism inadequate to stabilize the post-secondary system and to strengthen the capacity of each of our institutions to support communities, which are very fragile right now.