Mr. Speaker, Statistics Canada has announced that tuition fees for students at Canadian universities have increased by nearly 12 per cent over the last year.
Since the Liberal government took power and started hacking away at transfers for post-secondary education, tuition fees in Canada have increased by a total of almost 30 per cent. Increased fees mean more and more young people are being excluded from the opportunity to participate in the so-called knowledge based economy that we consider so important because they can no longer afford to go to school.
My question is for the Minister of Finance. If by continuing the cuts to education is it his intention to deny the children of middle class and working families access to education. Is it the government's intention to return Canada to the days when only the wealthy could afford to go to university?