Mr. Speaker, subsection 14(7) we want to see deleted adds to the conditions imposed on the provinces which want to opt out of the federal financial assistance program and establish their own program, just like the province of Quebec and the Northwest Territories are currently doing.
This provision only adds to the existing conditions and Bill C-28 on financial assistance applies, as you know, to new matters. Pursuant to subsection 14(7), in order to obtain alternative payments, the Minister of Education or the province concerned must satisfy the Minister, by written notice received by the Minister before the beginning of the loan year in question, that, in relation to the matter in question, the provincial student financial assistance plan has substantially the same effect.
It must have the same effect not in general, with some small exemptions, but in every matter in question, as the plan established by this Act and the regulations. We have moved to delete this subsection, because section 14 already has six provisions which, according to a study we ordered and have had reviewed, are enough to provide all the provinces which decide to opt out of Bill C-28 with all the financial assistance they need.
Of course, we think the status quo would have been better, because the previous provisions were very specific. Pursuant to the old legislation, the provinces only needed to convince the minister where part-time student loans and special exemption periods were concerned.
To convince the federal minister, is it not a bit much? A provincial government must convince the federal minister when it needs financial assistance! Sometimes, people think that the federal government gets its money elsewhere, but I want to remind Quebecers that their taxes make up 24 per cent of all federal revenues. We do not take this money away from other provinces; it comes from their own tax dollars sent to Ottawa, which in turn provides financial assistance in an area under exclusive provincial jurisdiction. So, the minister must now be convinced. That was also a requirement under the existing provisions and admittedly these people had adopted a centralist approach. Before, we also had to convince the minister in order to opt out of the program, but only about very limited aspects such as part-time studies and special exemptions, not about loans. Let us not forget that fact.
Why is Quebec so insistent on managing its own financial assistance program? Of course, the program is not perfect and some will never be totally satisfied. Most Quebecers would prefer to see more grants than loans awarded, but, up until now, the federal program was restricted to loans. Grants will now be included, although this has long been the case in Quebec. It would take be too long to enumerate all the features of the Quebec legislation respecting student financial assistance, which was amended in 1990, but, as my colleague from Jonquière said, there are many of them.
Here is one characteristic which does not appear in this bill. For example, instead of imitating the federal legislation where a sword of Damocles hangs over the heads of students with poor grades, Quebec uses the carrot rather than the stick approach by saying that students graduating within the required time benefit from a reduction in their loan payments. We are thus encouraging those who succeed without penalizing or limiting access to those who have satisfactory results in certain fields, but who may go through difficult times because of personal problems, illness or family problems. Troubling events can always happen. According to this bill, the federal minister, through the appropriate authority, must ensure that the student has satisfactory results. In Quebec, it does not work this way. In our province, a scholarship program is already in place, even for part-time students. Therefore, the situation is already very interesting in Quebec.
However, it is a question of principle. Quebec must manage its own student loan program. Why? Because, as we know, every province invests in its own postsecondary education system. So does the federal government, but the stakeholders at that level are the provinces. What happens?
In Canada, for example-although this varies from one province to the next and even from one university to the next-the universities, which by getting less money from the higher levels of government, tend to raise their tuition fees. On average, these fees have increased threefold in all of Canada since 1984. In Quebec, universities have succeeded so far in maintaining lower tuition fees, since access to higher education is very important for Quebecers. This is a principle on which they all agree. There is a consensus on that. There must be access to higher education. Members of Parliament and ordinary citizens often say that people must take control of their own destiny and that students are no exception. They must pay a greater part of the cost of their education.
The example of the United States is often given. True, this is the case in the United States but this is the only western country where tuition fees are higher than in Canada. In France, university education is free, because access to university education is also considered to be important. With this right to opt out, Canada looks more and more like two countries in one. We do not want to prevent English Canada from putting in place a loan system according to its own values and needs, but Quebec has its own concepts on this due to its cultural identity. Quebecers have their own values.
We find it unacceptable that a government which said that it did not want to talk about the Constitution anymore is discreetly amending legislation containing quasi-constitutional provisions. It says one thing and does the exact opposite. It waited till the end of the session to force us to adopt its measure in a hurry even before the Minister of Human Resources Development reveals his action plan for social security reform and before the consultations on this subject take place. Students are considered
to be a distinct group since it has already been decided how they should be treated.
The government could have raised the ceiling on student loans simply by amending that aspect of the existing act, but no. It chose to present a bill that represents a further encroachment in an area of exclusive provincial jurisdiction, namely education.