Women have played a small part in the sciences in Canada, a fact which NSERC ultimately recognized as a problem that warranted examining "the various ways in which the agency could enhance the participation of women in its programs."

In October 1996 Statistics Canada announced the creation of the Centre for Education Statistics, which will replace the current education sub-division of Statistics Canada.

Strikes take energy, time, commitment and able leadership. At York University our colleagues showed they had more than enough energy, time, commitment and able leadership to see them through the longest strike in the history of Canada’s English-language universities.

Despite recent drastic cutbacks in federal support for higher education, Ottawa remains a substantial player in the funding of post-secondary education and research.

After the Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee completed and approved its report concerning Professor Wilfred Cude’s complaint, the Executive Committee received from Professor D. Wood an appeal against the decision of the AF&T Committee to publish that report. The Executive subsequently chose to strike an arm's-length sub-committee to investigate whether the AF&T's decision to publish had been arrived at under the usual rules of procedure required of the AF&T committee under its by-laws. That Special Appeal Sub-Committee of the Executive reported in September 1996. Its report concluded that the AF&T Committee's decision to publish had been reached as the result of due consideration and according to the usual practices and regulations which apply in all such cases. The Executive Committee unanimously rejected Professor Wood's appeal, and confirmed the original decision to publish the present report.

The coming election presents CAUT with an opportunity and a problem. First, the opportun-ity. The 1980s and 1990s have been hard on public post-secondary education, just as they have been hard on public schooling, publicly provided health care, and on the great institutions of social security.

In the past, federal/provincial cooperation has been essential to the funding of higher education. Through the Canada Health and Social Transfer (CHST), the federal government currently transfers $25.1 billion to the provinces for health, post-secondary education and social assistance. Are such transfers effective.

As the 21st century dawns, Canadian social and economic development will be key factors to tapping into the global economy. What should the next federal government do to ensure Canadians are prepared for the new century.

What does your party see as the most important issues facing higher education leading up to the year 2000?

For many years, books and periodicals were exempted from federal sales tax. The imposition of the federal sales tax and import taxes on books and periodicals has considerably increased the costs of learning and doing research in Canada. Key foreign research publications not only add on the Canadian tax but also hefty charges for processing required documentation. Thus, the cost to the government of collection and enforcement involving thousands of Canadian and foreign journals with tiny print runs is uneconomic.

The Fedeeral government has for many years contributed to student aid through the Canada Student Loans Program (CSLP). Because of rising tuition and fees, student debt levels in Canada are currently among the highest in OECD. An increasing number of students depend on the CSLP. Last year, students received $619 million in assistance from the CSLP.

Research and development (R&D) efforts are important components of continued economic growth adn competitiveness, as well as social and cultural development. Universities play a significant role not only in performing research, but also in providing the specialized education needed to train the next generation of researchers. The federal government has supported university research for many decades through the three federal research granting councils (Medical Research Council, National Science and Engineering Research Council, and Social Science and Humanities Research Council). Since 1990, the funding for research through these councils has diminished significantly, while most of Canada's trading partners have increased their investments.

The Canada Council fosters and promotes the study, enjoyment and production of works in the arts. The Council also coordinates Canadian participation in UNESCO activities abroad and in Canada. It functions very much like a granting council with over 90 per cent of its budget allocated to provide assistance to individual artists and arts organizations. Part of the Department of Canadian Heritage, the Council’s budget, through the years, has made up roughly three per cent of the Department’s total expenditures. Traditionally, the Canada Council has been an important source of financial support for fine arts programs in Canadian universities.

It has been over fifty years since the Canadian government signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which declared that access to higher education should be available equally to all, based on merit. In accordance with the UN Declaration, CAUT has always maintained the position that a university education is a public good and that society has an economic and social interest in making resources available to realize these goals. To this end, CAUT has supported the principle that there should be no tuition charged at accredited universities and colleges.

The Canadian Consortium for Research (CCR) consists of 22 organizations that represent 50,000 scientists and researchers and 400,000 university students across Canada. While the majority of the scientists and researchers are based in universities, the constituent organizations have numerous members in government laboratories and agencies, hospitals and other health care institutions, and in private sector research centres. CCR's primary concerns are the development and funding of research in all sectors, and the support of post-secondary education.

While the age of our members is diverse, a significant proportion fall into the 18-24 year old demographic. Statistics show that this age group has the lowest voter participation in federal elections.

AUCC’s election strategy has three key components: collecting and disseminating information on the five main parties’ positions with respect to higher education and research in Canada; securing commitments favourable to the higher education community from party leaders and local candidates of all parties; raising public awareness of the importance of higher education and research to the future of Canada.

As readers of the Bulletin will know, phase II of Bill C-32 was "hijacked" by the Heritage Committee when a large number of amendments were rammed through the committee in December of 1996 without any significant debate.

In the late 1980s the Liberals often spoke of the importance of research and development. As opposition MPs Liberals were quick to point out Canada’s poor performance in funding R&D compared with other G-7 countries. In 1989 M.P. Rey Paktaghan said in the House of Commons "It is absolutely necessary for the Canadian government to increase spending in the area of research and development." In the same year Jim Peterson asserted that "We (in the Liberal Party) do not think that our young people should be handicapped because the government is not prepared to do as much as other governments in the world are prepared to do in terms of creating a technological base and the research and development critical for it."