Statement made on 20 June 2006 by Senator Wilfred Moore
Hon. Wilfred P. Moore:
Honourable senators, it is my distinct privilege to rise today to speak to Senator Tardif's inquiry on the state of post-secondary education in Canada. This has been an issue which I have been championing in this chamber over the years and I am pleased to see that the importance of this issue is shared by Senator Tardif and other colleagues.
It is clear that we must now address the post-secondary education system in Canada. The evidence shows that a university educated workforce accounts for up to 20 per cent of the growth in total output in G7 countries. Investment in OECD countries positively correlates with the extent of post-secondary education in the workforce, such that each additional year of education raises output per capita by 6 per cent.
The fact that Canada has no immediate plan to address this issue is staggering indeed. The phrase "post-secondary education" did not make its way into Budget Plan 2006. Should this fact alarm us? After reading Senator Tardif's speech, I would say that we should be more than alarmed at this moment. A call for leadership has gone ignored.
As I stated earlier, we in this chamber have been discussing this situation for decades, and it is always disappointing when the priorities in the other place do not include post-secondary education. This should be a constant and annual policy priority, and it should always rank in this country's top five policy priorities.
In Atlantic Canada, we have been emphasizing the importance of the knowledge-based economy, and our place in it, over the past decade. In my time in Ottawa, our Atlantic Liberal caucus authored two papers detailing what should be done to provide funding to knowledge-driven industries in our region. I must say that our recommendations, which were contained in "Catching Tomorrow's Wave" and "The Rising Tide," have been a great success. Those papers spawned the Atlantic Innovation Fund, which has been a force in federal investment in research in Atlantic Canada. Work has been done; much more is required.
I recently attended a meeting of the Association of Atlantic Universities, where a report entitled Smarter Together: The Economic Impact of Universities in the Atlantic Provinces, was released. I have a copy of that report, one in each of our official languages, and I should like to have the permission of the Senate to table it.
The Hon. the Speaker: Is leave granted for the document to be tabled?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
Senator Moore: This culmination of six months of study details the importance of the university community to the Atlantic region. This study illuminates the economic and social impact of universities in Atlantic Canada.
I would like to share with you some of the findings of the report. The impact of our 17 universities on the lives of the people of the Atlantic region goes beyond what I expected, so much so that I submit our universities, as the drivers of our knowledge-based economy, may be our largest industry — to the tune of $4.4 billion per year, based on direct and indirect expenditures. I wish to emphasize the significance of some elements of this fact.
According to the report, universities in Atlantic Canada employ 16,655 faculty and staff. Also 3,000 to 4,000 students work as researchers. This number of employees can add up to 15 per cent to 30 per cent of the workforce in smaller university towns in the region. This number is huge.
The study also puts these numbers in the context of other industries that exist in each particular town. For example, Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John's is the second largest employer behind the provincial government. The University of Prince Edward Island employs the same number as such sectors as finance and insurance. These universities can represent up to 50 per cent of the income generated in smaller towns. The jobs are stable and well paying. These numbers combined with the money spent by universities in their communities and the money spent by students add up to $2 billion in direct spending — more than any single industry.
The report echoes numbers mentioned by Senator Tardif as well. For example, a university degree in Atlantic Canada translates into earnings of 60 per cent more than those of a high school graduate. Atlantic Canada, as I have mentioned in previous speeches, does not possess the financial backing from the private sector as far as investing in research and development. We simply do not have a large corporate community to call upon. Nor does the private sector provide a great deal of research in the region. The universities are the prime generators of research.
The main source of investment in this research and development comes from the federal government in the form of research council grants, the Atlantic Innovation Fund or the research foundations. These projects are primarily peer-reviewed and approved. Thus, it is incredibly important for Atlantic Canada that all levels of government have a commitment to investing in universities in the region as well as a plan as to how to best direct this investment.
I have a few thoughts of my own on this subject. The importance of the matter at the federal level should be demonstrated with changes in how we treat post-secondary education. In the realm of post-secondary education, there exist no conditions associated with federal cash transfers to the provinces. Witness the Government of Nova Scotia, my province, cutting its post-secondary funding upon students receiving federal millennium scholarship grants. That is shameful!
This problem still exists today. We have no means for accounting for the federal dollars that are transferred to the provinces for education purposes via block funding. This is precisely the time for the federal government to take the lead in this area. While we often hear that education is a provincial responsibility, it has been proven in the past that when it is to the benefit of each province and territory, and the nation as a whole, agreements between the two levels of government have been entered into. Witness the 2003 health accord, whereby the health component was separate from the Canadian Health and Social Transfer to provide greater transparency and accountability for how federal funds for health care are spent by the provinces. I urge the federal government to separate the educational component from the Canada Social Transfer to create the Canadian education transfer, thereby providing greater transparency and accountability for how federal funds for education are spent by the provinces.
The federal government spends approximately $9 billion per year on education and research under all its funding programs. With such a substantial expenditure there area should be a dedicated portfolio to administer this national wealth.
I again urge that a ministry of post-secondary education and research be created to provide the leadership that is desperately needed. That ministry could ensure a stable and predictable level of funding for post-secondary education so that our universities can budget and plan with certainty. Only the federal government has the ability to establish and protect such national funding standards.
There needs to be a sea change in the manner in which we perceive the benefits of a post-secondary education. The trend lately has been to isolate the student as the major recipient of these benefits and, as the policy of the 1990s demonstrated, to shift the weight of financial burden to those students as well. This precedent is very dangerous and we are reaping the negative benefits of this policy today. Leaving the funding up to students will see annual tuition rate increases, and inevitably a lower participation rate as these fees become unmanageable debts upon graduation.
The result of the natural extension of this situation will be that a post-secondary education will be available to only the rich rather than to those qualified academically.
That, honourable senators, is not the system that Canadians want or deserve, nor does it, in any way, benefit this country. As we have heard over and over again, the more educated we are, the more productive, competitive and well off we will be as a nation.
I am reminded of a report from the Caledon Institute, a local think-tank, entitled, Education and the Public Good. Does anyone here remember or recall the term "public good? You do not hear it around here much these days. Terms such as "asymmetrical federalism," "fiscal imbalance" or is it "fiscal balance," seem to be the catch phrases. While that report dealt more with public schools, I think the lesson can be applied to our post-secondary education system as well.
"Education should be treated as an asset" is the title of one section. We have fallen into the trap of regarding the university system as a burden but we cannot afford to do so. The report quotes John Ralston Saul who states:
From a book keeping point of view it is a clear liability. A golf ball, by contrast, is considered an asset and the sale of it is a measurable factor of growth.
I believe the transfer of knowledge to be the ultimate virtue. We must do more to assist and encourage our university students and their teachers who labour in the love of learning.
The aforementioned report of the Association of Atlantic Universities clearly demonstrates the dollars and economic impact involved. It really is time to think of the money that we appropriate to our post-secondary education system as an investment in the future of Canada — our citizens, environment, science and technology, industry and health. That investment will reap dividends that we are just beginning to comprehend. We cannot continue to put off addressing this most fundamental national policy, that of post-secondary education. In the words of Senator Tardif:
...waiting for one year or more might be the difference between Canada being a global player and a global pretender.
Let us get at it now.