FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OTTAWA, April 7, 2022 - The Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA) and the Quebec Student Union (QSU) feel that Budget 2022 was a missed opportunity for the Government to invest in Canada’s future: post-secondary students.
In the last federal election, the Government promised to support students with a suite of proposals that would make post-secondary education more accessible and affordable. Exciting promises like eliminating federal interest on student loans, raising the threshold to begin making student loan payments to $50,000, and hiring up to 1,200 new mental health counsellors were applauded by student advocates and highly anticipated. The lack of new investment in these promises has post-secondary students worried that they will not come to pass.
“This was a missed opportunity,” says Christian Fotang, Chair of the CASA Board of Directors. “Students will be critical to Canada’s economic recovery and green transition over the coming decade. Going into today, students were anticipating that Budget 2022 would reflect some of the student-focused promises from the Government’s election platform. They were let down by the lack of follow-through.”
Despite the fact that today’s budget featured little direct support for post-secondary students, CASA is pleased to see new investments in post-secondary research, health care worker loan forgiveness, international student processing capacity, and Indigenous learner support programs. Specifically, CASA applauds the new investment made to launch a national lab-to-market platform that will help graduate students and researchers take their research to market.
“It is exciting to see expanded investments into graduate student research through the new lab-to-market platform,” says Jonathan Desroches, President of the Quebec Student Union. “That said, students continue to be underfunded and underrepresented within the tri-council agencies. CASA and the QSU hope to see this gap addressed in the near future.”
While we are disappointed today, we are hopeful that there will continue to be investments into post-secondary students. CASA will continue to work diligently to ensure the Government fulfils the promises it has made to students.
Students are tomorrow’s workforce and tomorrow’s homeowners. Investing in them is investing in Canada's future.
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About CASA:
Established in 1995, the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA) is a non-partisan, not-for-profit, national student organization composed of 23 student associations representing 274,000 post-secondary students from coast to coast. With its partnership with the Quebec Student Union (QSU), CASA represents a total of 365,000 students across Canada and presents a national student voice to the federal government. CASA advocates for a Canadian post-secondary education system that is accessible, affordable, innovative, and of the highest quality.
About QSU:
The Quebec Student Union's mission is to defend the rights and interests of the student community, of its member associations, and of their members, by promoting, protecting, and ameliorating the conditions of students and those of local and international communities. The QSU represents more than 91,000 members from university campuses across Quebec.
Contact:
Jared Maltais
Interim Executive Director
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: 613-236-3457
Alexandre Ducharme
Press Officer
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: 514-497-2602
