Something for everyone?

The federal budget and students

KERRI WOLOSZYN STAFF

On Monday, March 19, the Conservative government came out with the federal budget. The plan seemed to have something for everyone, especially working parents. There was also a strong showing in the environment department as well, making things like hybrid cars more appealing with tax breaks. Some say that the budget works hard to appeal to almost everyone, leaving some, like couples without children or the environmentally greedy, with little to call their own. The unfortunate thing about spending money (like the Conservatives did in a fairly un-conservative move) is that there is never enough for everyone. Somebody always has something to complain about. But where did the budget leave post-secondary students?

Certainly not out in the cold. The Department of Finance Canada website outlines the budget in its entirety and includes a chapter entitled “A Stronger Canada through a Stronger Economy.” The introduction to the chapter, which talks specifically about students, says, “We’re making investments to create the best-educated, most-skilled and most flexible labour force in the world.” Nothing like a budget to bring the drone out in all of us.

The budget allocated $800 million in spending throughout Canada for universities next year. The March 20, 2007 issue of the Winnipeg Free Press called universities and colleges “winners” because of the amount of money they are set to receive from the government, and noted that funding will increase by three per cent every year.

The budget also will set aside money for graduate students’ scholarships. The website claims that there will be “$35 million over two years and $27 million per year thereafter to support an additional 1,000 students through the Canada Graduate Scholarships.”

Additionally, there will be an increase in the amount that one can put into Registered Education Savings Plans (RESPs) to make them more attractive. There will no longer be an annual contribution limit of $4,000 and the lifetime contribution limit will be bumped up from $42,000 to $50,000. Although this seems to be something that once again focuses directly on parents who want their children to get a higher education in the future and not something that can help us now, it may be important in the fight against student debt.

So what is there to complain about? Relatively little, I would argue. A Maclean’s article called “Federal education funding hesitantly embraced” highlights the way that lobby groups like the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) have called the budget a positive step. And really, how could they not? CFS has lobbied for years on the basis of the tuition fee freeze and increased government funding. This year, they got just that. More government spending to the tune of $800 million; the only problem now is, where does that money go?

The government is keeping mum on what they have in store for the wads of cash that it will be doling out to our post-secondary institutions for at least a year so that it can decide on how the money would be best spent. The sheer fact that what exactly the $800 million will be used is being kept a secret until 2008 is a problem for some who see the potential for it to be lost in the shuffle or used for something else. It is certain that once the government hands the money over to the provinces and decides exactly what it will be used for, many people will argue that it was used for the wrong thing.

Strengthening our post-secondary institutions is a noble goal and it is a safe bet that few organizations would shy away from accepting the money. Money is (perhaps unfortunately) an important part of making things run smoothly and efficiently. If the money in the budget is used for some means other than making colleges and universities better (with better professors and better facilities) then the money will have been wasted.

The promise of $800 million in post-secondary spending will appease the masses for now. But when we eventually find out the secret, when the government tells us how it wants to spend money on us, there will be many who will complain that the Conservatives once again missed the mark. Maybe even me.

Kerri Woloszyn has a degree in films studies and is the Manitoban’s roving reporter.