Mr. Speaker, the state of post-secondary education in this country is really deplorable.
If we look at the need for our society to adapt to a rapidly changing world, the need to help shape a 21st century economy, and the need for young people to get additional skills, training and development so they can succeed in life and fully contribute to our society and our economy, we see a post-secondary education system that governments are failing.
We are finding students who are saddled with more and more debt. There are young people starting out in life mortgaged to the hilt and paying off their education.
Other countries have chosen a different path. They have chosen the path of encouraging their young people to get as much education as possible and to gain as many skills as possible. They understand that when the potential of young people is unleashed and they are given help to prepare in the best way possible for the future by being given as much education as possible, a huge potential is created for society. That country is then investing in the future of society and the future of the economy.
Many European countries, and Ireland is one example, have decided that this is a part of their strategy for the future in terms of revitalizing their economy. It is to increase the percentage of young people who can get access to post-secondary education.
We know that student access to post-secondary education is really dependent on the affordability. For many working and middle class families, the prospect of starting out life with a massive debt is simply untenable.
Recently at the industry committee I heard from the head of the Canadian Dental Association, who described how dental students are facing tuition fees of $50,000 a year. Dentists are starting out in their careers with an absolutely massive debt at a time when they need to make investments in equipment and machinery. He also said that Canada is graduating fewer dentists today than we were 30 years ago.
That is just one example of the narrowness of our focus on post-secondary education. Simply transferring money to universities is not good enough. What we need to do is actually bring down tuition fees so that post-secondary education is affordable to as many students as possible. We know that with tuition fees as high as they are, and rising, fewer middle class students, especially working class students, are going to get access to post-secondary education.
The focus on RESPs as a strategy for enhancing affordability is really problematic because it advantages disproportionately the wealthiest members in our society, who will be able to have full access to the RESP system, especially if it is a taxable credit. In the first year, it will take about a half a billion dollars. This will of course escalate and increasingly skew the ability of those who are the wealthiest to get access to these kinds of savings.
We in the NDP believes that the best way to use these tax dollars is not to give them back to those who are the wealthiest and the most able to invest in their children's education as it is, but to reduce the cost of tuition fees so that there is broad access for all students. We believe that the grant portion ought to be far more broadly available so that we are not sinking students deeper into debt.
Having said that, I certainly know that many families across the country will be saying that they have gone beyond frustration with governments when it comes to post-secondary education. Governments have failed students by not making education affordable. Increasingly, rather than seeing a collective solution whereby governments invest in post-secondary education and make it affordable for all students, parents are thinking that this is an individual responsibility and that they have to save in accounts for their children, starting off when they are born, to be able to afford to send them on to university.
Again, I do want to say that for parents who are facing job loss or any kind of major economic challenges in life, it is extremely difficult for them to save this kind of money for their children's education. However, for parents who do manage to save for their children's education, those parents certainly would be in support of a tax credit as is proposed here.
It is a difficult issue for Canadians to grapple with. Certainly our party preference is that we create an education system that is affordable for everyone and that we invest in a massive way in post-secondary education so our youth are equipped to deal with a rapidly changing and globally competitive economy and are trained with the best skills possible.
However, I do understand the needs of families who are so strapped but do manage to put a bit of money away. They would appreciate a tax credit for that. I think it is a shame that parents are put in this situation whereby the government abandons the most efficient, effective way of the greatest number of students being able to attend university, including those who have the marks to succeed but do not come from a family wealthy enough to save for their education. I think it is a shame that we pit those families against the families who have the money to be able to save for their children's education.
If we are to look to the future and the need for students across this country to get an education, I would like to think that they are looking at a future in which our government does everything possible to encourage students to go to university and makes tuition fees as affordable as possible so young people do not say that university is simply not an option for them.
As for middle class families who have the money and the resources to put funds away year after year, they are the folks who will be able to benefit from all kinds of different tax shelters and all different kinds of savings accounts, so of course they would rather have the tax credit for the RESP. I am sure there are families in my riding who will say they have been saving since their children were born, they have put money away and it would certainly benefit them to get the tax credit for it. I appreciate their concern. I appreciate their desire to have a tax shelter.
However, I say again that it is a poor way to design an overall education policy. I believe that overall it fails the students of Canada. I believe it fails what we could be for the future. It is a very different path from that of so many other successful economies around the world. I think we could take a page from the books of a number of other countries. Ireland stands out, as I have said before. It really is too bad that the previous government and the current government have not seen fit to make post-secondary education the priority that it needs to be.
My time is almost up. I just want to say that I was at the University of Ottawa last night speaking to a number of students and the number one issue students raised with me was the issue of student debt. I believe it urgently needs to be addressed by this government. It is not addressed in the budget that has been put before this House. I believe it is long overdue that collectively as members of Parliament we decide to take on this issue and finally make some progress.