Mr. Speaker, I wish to thank the hon. member for Elk Island for his question. We miss him on the finance committee because he was always an involved and erudite member of that committee.
On the question of education, I want to first of all recognize the bold and innovative idea put forth in the House by the hon. member for Fundy—Royal to provide a tax deductability for the principal repayment made on student loans. That would go a long way to making it easier for graduates to pay off their student debts more quickly and provide a real tax advantage for them to actually stay in Canada, as opposed to leaving and seeking their fortunes elsewhere. That was the kind of forward thinking approach that I would like to see the government take to handling student debt issues.
Instead, the government voted against his private member's motion in the House and voted down what could have been a good idea that was supported by Canadian students and the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations. That was tragic because the motion had the real capacity to improve the state of education in Canada.
The budget proposes to have a new federal agency looking at issues of education and new ideas for education. There was very little, in fact, there was no consultation with provincial governments about this. This is a key area of provincial responsibility. The federal government that slashed transfers to the provinces in the late 1990s is now overreaching provincial jurisdictions and investing money in areas where it should be helping the provinces move forward. That is clearly offensive.
Dianne Cunningham, Ontario's Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities said:
I don't know why they are thinking up new things when they cannot fulfill their commitments. If the federal government really does care about students, they've got to invest money on the front lines.
I could not agree more with the minister from the Ontario government.