CAUT | ACPPU
Canadian Association of University Teachers
Issues & Campaigns
[Download letter in pdf format]
February 16, 2010
Hon. Jim Flaherty
Minister of Finance
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6
Dear Minister:
On behalf of the Canadian Association of University Teachers, representing more than 65,000 academic and general staff at universities and colleges across Canada, we are writing to you with respect to the priorities that we feel need to be addressed in the next federal budget.
There is a growing international consensus that public investment in post-secondary education and research is critical for building sustainable growth and for improving the quality of life of citizens. Expanding access to quality post-secondary education and supporting scientific research generates real economic gains and contributes to the social and cultural development of nations.
Last year, your government unveiled an “economic action plan” that provided only part of what was needed for Canada’s universities and colleges. While the budget unveiled a $2 billion knowledge infrastructure program that has been important in helping to address some of the deferred maintenance issues on campuses, funding for the conduct of research through Canada’s three granting agencies was actually reduced by $147 million as a result of the strategic review process. Similarly, only very modest measures were taken to enhance the affordability of post-secondary education and to provide the provinces with the funding needed to meet growing demand.
Budget 2010 provides you with the opportunity to fix these gaps.
First, the budget must address ways that the federal government can better assist the provinces to meet the growing demand for post-secondary education. As a result of the recession and of longer-term changes in the labour market, student applications are rising sharply. However, because of insufficient funding for student spaces, more and more institutions are being forced to turn away qualified applicants. At the same time, many universities and colleges are cutting staff, reducing course offerings, and scaling back on educational and research resources. In short, the accessibility and quality of post-secondary education in Canada is being compromised.
While education is a provincial jurisdiction, we believe the federal government has a vital role to play in addressing these problems. Through the Canada Social Transfer, the federal government provides support to the provinces for post-secondary education. These transfers have been increased in recent years, and are set to rise by 3% in future years. We appreciate your commitment not to cut these transfers in the next budget. However, given the growth in enrolment demand we believe current funding levels remain insufficient. Federal cash transfers for post-secondary education need to be increased in the next budget by $400 million just to restore funding, in real terms, to 1992-93 levels. Looking further ahead, the federal government should reconsider whether the 3% built-in escalator is sufficient to meet the needs of the sector given inflation and enrolment increases. The provinces, in assessing the fiscal balance in Canada, had proposed an escalator of 4.5%.
Secondly, Budget 2010 must do more for Canada’s scientific research community. Cuts to the granting agencies and the uncertainty about continued federal support for a number of research foundations and bodies have cast a cloud over the future of university-based science. Funding for the conduct of research is falling in Canada at the same time as the Obama administration in the United States is making significant new investments in university research. Just to match, on a proportional basis, the funding for research being introduced by the U.S. government would require your government to increase funding to the granting agencies by approximately $1 billion over the next two years.
Canada’s scientific community is not only concerned about the lack of funding for the conduct of research in the last budget. We also remain deeply troubled by how your government is increasingly actively directing what research is done. The 2009 budget allocated $87.5 million for new Canada Graduate Scholarships but specified that “scholarships granted by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council will be focused on business-related degrees.” The budget also stipulated that the bulk of infrastructure money given to the Canadian Foundation for Innovation is for future priority projects identified by the Minister of Industry. Instead of allowing a scientific peer review process to determine which research centres are funded, the budget allocated $50 million directly to the Institute for Quantum Computing in Waterloo for a new research facility “that will contribute to achieving the goals of the Government’s science and technology strategy.”
This is not a new problem, but it is one that seems to be growing more common with each passing budget. If the government continues on this path, there will be dire consequences. History has shown us that decisions about the merits of scientific research are best left to scientists, not governments or politicians. The world’s most important and innovative scientific discoveries have typically come from basic research, driven by researchers’ quest for knowledge, with a scientific peer-review process making decisions about what areas and what research to fund.
Finally, we want to address a broader issue related to the state of federal finances. As the Parliamentary Budget Officer and most private sector economists have detailed, the federal government is now facing a structural deficit. Even with a full economic recovery, your government will not be able to balance its budget without major cuts to program spending and/or tax increases.
A major contributor to the federal deficit has been the massive cuts in taxes enacted in recent years. As Budget 2009 indicated, the cumulative effect of tax measures introduced by your government since 2008 will result in a loss in federal revenues of $220 billion by 2014. As a result, it is projected that levels of federal revenues will be insufficient to maintain the public services and programs, like post-secondary education and research, that Canadians need and that are necessary for our nation’s long-term development and growth. Your budget deficit plan must therefore recognize the need, as the economic recovery gathers steam, to raise taxes in a fair and equitable manner.
The economic crisis that erupted in 2008 taught us that there is a need for the federal government to play a more substantial role in the economy. In particular, investments in research and education can help stimulate both the short-term recovery but also long-term growth and development. If we ignore this lesson, Canada’s universities and colleges will face increasingly difficult challenges. Accessibility and quality will erode further, and our ability as a nation to reap the social, cultural and economic benefits of education will be increasingly compromised.
Yours Sincerely,
Penni Stewart James L. Turk
President Executive Director
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