Mr. Speaker, that is a good question and it is one on which the finance committee received quite a number of representations.
To try to summarize it in a one minute response is going to be a bit tricky, but we can basically divide the issue into two. The first issue is access of students, which the hon. member is concerned about, and the second issue is basically the infrastructure, the buildings, the labs, et cetera, when the students get there. Both need to be addressed.
The way in which the government seems to have responded at this stage is an $80 tax credit for books. Well good for them, but it is not going to do anything for improving the quality of our schools. Certainly none of the budget responds to the issue of keeping the research councils well funded so that we keep our best researchers here, and certainly nothing happens for the students.
We heard repeated representations from various student groups. It did not matter whether they were on the east coast, the west coast or somewhere in between; they feel that the government has essentially turned its back on improved access to post-secondary education.