Finance committee  Good afternoon. The Canadian Federation of Students unites over 80 student unions in all provinces, and in all we bring together more than one-half million students at public institutions, big and small institutions, urban and rural. Thank you, of course, for the opportunity to

Finance committee  Thank you for the question, because it's a good one. If the finance minister wants to allocate funds for infrastructure, then that's great. There is a problem on our campuses in terms of the physical infrastructure, but the finance minister shouldn't say he's fulfilling the obl

Finance committee  There is a substantial gap between the participation rates of students from low-income households and middle- and high-income households. That gap is a substantial one, and it's not going to be closed by building a new classroom here and there. It's going to be closed by making a

Finance committee  No.

Finance committee  The economic and fiscal update, yes.

Finance committee  The expansion of the existing grant, yes.

Finance committee  Again--and I'm not suggesting you are--we don't have to pit infrastructure support against access. I think Canada is in the position to do both, invest in infrastructure maintenance and improvements and enhance access. Frankly, I think there were a number of measures in the fal

Finance committee  At the most, yes, for full-time students who qualify.

Finance committee  It's a bit more substantial, mainly for graduate students who are already in receipt of grants, but it doesn't do anything to increase the number of graduate students who are being supported federally through the granting council. Again, it's not going to hurt anybody, but as we

Finance committee  In nobody's view that I know of.

Finance committee  Our demands are very close to the provincial premiers' demands, which are that there needs to be an immediate infusion of about $2.2 billion into the provinces for post-secondary education. That's the bare minimum. There is about a $6 billion gap that has crept up since 1993, and

Finance committee  The history of transfer payments is a matter of public record, and that's clear. We need to go forward. We need to recognize that Canada almost couldn't be in a healthier economic and fiscal position. We need to train our young workers, looking forward to the future.

Finance committee  No, in fact we don't, and we work on a very close basis with the university and CEGEP associations in Quebec. Part of the problem of coming up with a scientific number on what students and their families are owed in transfer payments is the fact that between 1996 and 2004 we had

Finance committee  Use the money that is currently slotted for tax credits to be—

Procedure and House Affairs committee  My name is Ian Boyko. I'm the government relations coordinator for the Canadian Federation of Students, which unites approximately half a million students at colleges and universities from coast to coast in all 10 provinces. I'm going to abandon my remarks today, because two min