Federal Finance Minister Paul Martin's October mini-budget gets a failing grade when it comes to preparing Canadians for the "new economy."

"You simply can't build the new economy on a shaky foundation of tax cuts," said CAUT president Tom Booth. "You have to ensure people have the opportunities to learn."

Martin's economic statement, delivered on the eve of an election call and intended to pull the rug out from under the Canadian Alliance's tax-cut platform, announced a massive $100 billion worth of tax reductions over the next five years, including bigger than expected reductions for higher income earners.

Booth said that in their plans to devote the lion's share of the surplus to cutting taxes, both the Liberals and the Alliance fail to recognize that continued under-funding is threatening quality and putting a university and college education out of reach of more and more young people.

He acknowledged Martin's mini-budget raised the education tax credit, but said this will do nothing to solve the problem of higher tuition fees and student debt.

"Students and their families are being forced to take on unbearable debt loads and the increased tax credit for students announced today will not make a dent in this," he said. "Students who need relief the most -- those with very low incomes -- will not benefit at all because they have little or no taxable income."

Budget Highlights

• New taxation rates and taxable income thresholds, effective January 1 -- 16 per cent up to $30,754 (previously 17 per cent); 22 per cent up to $61,609 (previously 24 per cent); 26 per cent up to $100,000 (previously 29 per cent), and 29 per cent over $100,000 (unchanged).
  
• A minimum $10 billion debt payment in the current fiscal year.
  
• Elimination of the 5 per cent high income surtax.
  
• $100 increase in the Child Tax Benefit.
  
• $100 million over five years for the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council to support research on the "knowledge economy."
  
• $400 million of new funding for the Canada Foundation for Innovation to cover the operating costs of university research.
  

"Even with extra funding for research, none of these proposals tackles the fundamental problem facing our universities and colleges -- the lack of core funding," Booth said.

"Our institutions as a whole are literally crumbling and funding the operating costs of university research will largely channel more money into the richest and largest universities.

"Overall, this budget ignores education. And that is simply bad public policy."

Silencing the Critics

CAUT was joined by the Canadian Federation of Students in criticizing the government for the way it handled the release of the mini-budget. In a strongly-worded letter to Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, they accused the government of restricting access to the secured reading of the budget and to the media opportunity traditionally provided for non-governmental organizations on Parliament Hill.

"We've been invited to every secured reading of the budget until now but were shut out this year," Booth said. "We believe the government wanted to muffle criticism of its mini-budget before the election in the same way it's trying to silence the Auditor General."

Traditionally, when the government releases a budget or key economic statement, the deputy minister of Finance usually invites non-governmental organizations to a secured reading prior to the document being tabled in the House of Commons. After the "lockup," those in attendance have then been given the opportunity to address the media.

"I was invited to the deputy minister's watch, but wasn't allowed to participate in the media opportunity," said CFS national chairperson Michael Conlon. "From what I saw, there was clearly an attempt to keep some organizations away from the media."

In the joint letter, Booth and Conlon say the government's actions are anti-democratic and "cannot be tolerated and must not be repeated."