Statement made on 29 November 2006 by Senator Wilfred Moore
Hon. Wilfred P. Moore:
Honourable senators, in its 2006 budget, the federal government established a $1 billion Post-Secondary Infrastructure Trust. You will recall that we in this chamber led the fight for such funding under the leadership of Senator Lowell Murray, then Chair of the Standing Senate Committee on National Finance, which identified a national need of $3.6 billion.
My province of Nova Scotia's share of that trust fund is $28.8 million. However, rather than distribute those funds to our 11 universities for much needed infrastructure work, the Progressive Conservative provincial government has decided to give $440 to each Nova Scotian student attending university in Nova Scotia. This is but another shortchange by a government that provides the least amount of funding of all provinces in Canada to post-secondary education. The quotes of students about this politically motivated action range from "underwhelmed" to "useless". This inappropriate action is reminiscent of former Premier John Hamm's attempt to cut the provincial post-secondary education budget by an amount equal to the funds allotted to Nova Scotia through the Millennium Scholarship Program.
I call upon the federal government to strongly protest this action by the Government of Nova Scotia, and to require it to restore these trust fund dollars to their specified purpose, being the maintenance of post-secondary infrastructure.
As was stated by Gail Dinter-Gottlieb, President of Acadia University:
Imagine the overall impact that a $28 million infrastructure investment would have on the learning environment of Nova Scotia students and the efficiency of the tuition fees, through lowering the costs of operating our aging infrastructure.