The Standing Committee on Finance is calling on the Conservative government to boost funding for post-secondary education by creating a new dedicated transfer payment with more accountability over how the money is spent.

“The committee believes that greater transparency and accountability must exist with respect to the manner in which post-secondary education funds are spent,” said the committee report tabled in Parliament Dec. 7. “We feel that a separate education transfer is needed and that guidelines, principles, responsibilities and accountabilities for the federal and provincial/territorial governments would help to meet the intended goals.”

CAUT president Greg Allain welcomed the finance committee’s recommendation. “Our lobbying efforts are beginning to bear fruit. We’ve been calling for several years now for a separate payment to the provinces for post-secondary education and for some guarantee the provinces will spend the money as it’s intended.”
     
Allain noted the current federal program provides cash support to the provinces for post-secondary education and social services through the Canada Social Transfer, but that it’s a block funding arrangement without any transparency or accountability.
     
“How or even if the provinces spend the money on education is not known. Federal dollars intended for post-secondary education could for all we know be paying for roads or tax cuts,” he said.
     
The committee also says the government should increase support for university and college research, and recommends a $350 million increase over three years to the base budget of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and an allocation of $235 million over seven years to fund the Long Range Plan for Canadian Astronomy and Astrophysics.
     
The committee’s recommendations, if adopted, would also increase the base budgets of SSHRC and NSERC, and increase funding for the indirect costs of university research at the rate of 40 cents of every federally-awarded dollar of sponsored research.
     
Allain says the report also picks up on another key recommendation CAUT submitted in its pre-budget brief by calling on the government to secure the concerns of smaller and regional universities and colleges in the allocation of research funding to equalize access to federal research grants.
     
The committee’s report also recommends changing financial aid packages for students, but provides few specific details. The report calls for the creation of a “comprehensive system of needs-based grants and loans” to be in place no later than Aug. 31, 2007, but Allain said it’s not clear how the program would be constructed.
     
“We remain wary that the Conservative government may be considering the introduction of an Australian-style income-contingent loan repayment plan,” he warns. “That plan has led to skyrocketing tuition fees and massive student debt.”
     
Allain adds that one of the more surprising moves from the finance committee is a recommendation for the government to provide funding for a comprehensive “national, accessible, affordable, high-quality and publicly-regulated” system of child care. Shortly after taking office the Conservatives cancelled provincial child care agreements put together under the Liberals.
     
“While many of the recommendations in the finance committee report represent positive steps forward, it is far from guaranteed they will be adopted by the government in the 2007 budget,” Allain said. “CAUT believes the recommendations for greater support for post-secondary education and research are badly needed and easily affordable given the federal government’s surplus.”