Statement made on 26 February 2009 by Senator Catherine Callbeck
Hon. Catherine S. Callbeck:
Honourable senators, during the last Parliament, I introduced a motion to have the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology launch a study on the accessibility of post-secondary education in Canada. My motion asked the committee to look at all aspects of this serious issue, including current barriers for potential students — such as income or geography — current funding mechanisms, transfer payments, and evaluation of a dedicated post-secondary education transfer.
The new motion that I am moving today is only slightly different from the first. When I last spoke on the motion, Senator McCoy shared her concerns about Aboriginal access to post-secondary education and suggested that additional wording under paragraph (a) would give the committee broader terms to examine the unique challenges facing Aboriginal peoples. I have taken her suggestion and applied it to the motion, and I thank her for her comments.
Education and training is not a cost but rather an investment in Canadians and in the country. We must invest wisely and strategically in our human resources, in the skills and knowledge of our people. It is essential that our governments have plans and policies in place to help the country move forward.
Honourable senators, we all recognize the importance of education to social and economic development. It has been more than a decade since our late colleague Dr. Bonnell led the Special Committee on Post-Secondary Education. Since Dr. Bonnell's report, there have been a lot of changes. As examples, tuition has increased dramatically, the percentage of students requiring financial assistance has gone up, and the average debt load has continued to grow.
It is still a fact that youth from low-income families are half as likely to attend a post-secondary institution as youth from higher-income families. Increasing costs are not the only factor affecting the decisions not to pursue post-secondary education. A large number of factors are at play, but there is a correlation of many of these factors with low-income.
Honourable senators, we need to study accessibility to post-secondary education and recommend ways to help more Canadians overcome the barriers and move forward with their education and training in universities, colleges and trade schools. This is why I am again proposing that the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology undertake this examination of accessibility to post-secondary education in Canada.
We recognize the importance of education to our economic and social development goals, but, sadly, Canada is falling behind many other countries. According to the OECD's report entitled Education at a Glance 2008, Canada has one of the highest attainment levels. Forty-seven per cent of the working age population has some form of post-secondary education. However, we are still slightly below the OECD average for graduation, and the OECD notes that other countries are making faster progress. For example, Canada's graduation rate was 35 per cent in 2005. That is up from 28 per cent in 2000, which is an increase of 7 percentage points. Australia, on the other hand, had improved its graduation rate from 36 per cent in 2000 to 59 per cent in 2005. Iceland rose from 33 per cent to 56 per cent. We need to do better.
There can be no argument that post-secondary education is the key to a skilled workforce and therefore a key to this country's overall prosperity. Labour market forecasts suggest that higher education and training are fast becoming a prerequisite for employment. Between 2006 and 2015, approximately 1.7 million new jobs will be created in this country, although undoubtedly the current economic downturn will affect this figure, but more than two thirds of those jobs, 69.2 per cent, will be in occupations that require post-secondary education.
Demand will be especially high for those jobs that require a university degree. Employment in this category is projected to increase by an average of 1.6 per cent per year, mostly due to our continued shift to a knowledge-based economy and increased public spending in the health care sector. Jobs that require college education or apprenticeship training will grow by an annual rate of 1.1 per cent. In contrast, lower-skilled occupations will see much weaker job growth. For example, jobs that require only on-the-job training will see an average growth rate of only about 0.6 per cent each year.
Besides greater job growth, there are many advantages to the individual with a post-secondary education, one of which is income. According to a Statistics Canada report released last year, the average hourly wage for a man under 35, if he has completed high school, is $14.47. That wage increases to $16.54 if he has some post-secondary education, to $17.93 with a trades certificate or diploma, and $21.58 with a bachelor's degree. The wage difference between a man with a high school diploma and one with a university degree is almost 50 per cent.
The advantages to individuals go well beyond annual income. There is a strong association between education levels and overall health and well-being. Those with post-secondary educations are healthier, have a higher quality of life, and are employed in higher-paying, more fulfilling jobs. The OECD, in its 2006 report Society At A Glance, found that the higher the level of education, the higher the level of life satisfaction.
In addition to the benefits to the individual, there are also benefits to society. The Canadian Council of Learning has found a link between educational attainment and community engagement. Educated citizens participate more actively and make greater contributions in volunteering and charitable giving. These types of activities help whole communities and positively shape the world around us.
Each and every Canadian will benefit from the work of people who pursued their education to the post-secondary level, be it through a university degree, college diploma or trades certificate. They increase our productivity and our economic prosperity.
Canadians with secondary education contribute to a large portion of Canada's tax base, which helps fund our health care system, social benefits and other government programs. Tuition, extra fees, debt load, family income levels, means of financial assistance, parental attitude, geography and socio-cultural challenges are all barriers to equal access to post-secondary education. These barriers must be broken down so that everyone who has the ability to attend university or college does so.
It is for this reason that I have asked the committee to examine all barriers so that it might recommend positive policy changes that are within the federal government's grasp.
We all know that the provinces have constitutional jurisdiction over post-secondary education, but there is of course precedent for the federal government's involvement in post-secondary education. The federal government has been providing direct assistance in a number of ways, including the Canada Student Loans Program, Canada Study and Access Grants, Canada Education Savings Grants and the Millennium Scholarship Foundation, set to expire and be replaced by the Canada Student Grants Program.
Funding specifically for Aboriginal students is available under the Indian and Northern Affairs Canada's Post-Secondary Student Support Program and the University College Entrance Preparation Program.
The committee must study all of these means of financial assistance and funding. We must know how well these programs are helping increase accessibility to post-secondary education and make recommendations to increase that accessibility.
The federal government also provides for indirect assistance to provinces in the Canada Social Transfer through which the federal government distributes funding for post-secondary education and for social programs in each province. This motion, if adopted, will allow the Social Affairs Committee to examine the feasibility of a dedicated transfer specifically for post-secondary education.
Finally, the committee may also want to examine other related matters, such as the state of post-secondary education in other countries, especially those that have improved dramatically, to see what Canada can learn.
As I have said, increased accessibility and participation in post-secondary education is fundamental to Canada's competitiveness in the global knowledge-based economy. For a nation that prides itself in providing opportunities for all its citizens, we are certainly not fulfilling that role. As policy-makers, we must do what we can to ensure that Canadians are equipped with the knowledge and the skills that will help us succeed as a nation.