Human Resources committee  I understand that the government doesn't want to be giving funding to businesses or organizations that would be hiring a student anyway or ones that would be hiring a student at the same rate. I understand the desire to look for efficiencies there. But there have been studies don

Human Resources committee  Our members believe that education is the key to a healthy, prosperous society. We believe that post-secondary education is the path that will allow all Canadians to reach their full potential. But before many Canadians can even dream of going on to college or university or of st

Finance committee  Those are all really good points. Part of what we're talking about when we talk about a review of financial assistance is loans. We need to commend both this government and the previous government for making changes to parental contribution requirements in the student loan progr

Finance committee  First of all, what you need to do is focus on what you should not do, and that's this continual reliance on tax credits as a form of student financial aid. It's not just the federal government that's guilty of that; it's a lot of the provinces as well. You actually see more than

Finance committee  First of all, what you said is correct. We do need to look at the system as a whole, overhaul the system and have a review. We can't just tinker with it. We can't just deal in small programs. I think it does need to be overhauled, and needs-based assistance is the way to go, so l

Finance committee  I would recommend using the money set aside by Bill C-48 for an access fund and also an expansion to the Canada access grant.

Finance committee  Yes. I would suggest, vis-à-vis an amendment, that there be some provision for access put into the section about the fund that uses the money from Bill C-48.

Finance committee  Sorry, could you repeat that?

Finance committee  Yes, I am aware.

Finance committee  Yes, and obviously there would be the possibility that institutions would use infrastructure money to pay for projects that otherwise would come from other sources. So there is the possibility that you would be displacing tuition income.

Finance committee  I would say no. Infrastructure is very important to our post-secondary institutions. You would know that, coming from Atlantic Canada; there are some serious infrastructure problems there. But if you look at the language of Bill C-48, it was clearly intended to improve access. I

Finance committee  Yes. There was a commitment in the economic update to expand the Canada access grant. Currently, it's only for the first year of studies for students from low-income families. There was a commitment to expand it to four years of study, which is something we would support.

Finance committee  Yes. That's something we're looking at hopefully seeing come from the government, an expansion not just to a full four years of study but also to look at covering a more comprehensive portion of students' expenses.

Finance committee  Thank you for having me here today to speak about the bill. The recent federal budget contains several positive measures for students, but there is still much to be done. If scholarships and bursaries are made tax exempt, then students will be able to use their awards as intende