CASA Chair, Abdul Abbasi, has recently opened a Parliament of Canada e-petition, e-7090, calling on the federal government to permanently expand the Canada Student Financial Assistance program. 

The last time the levels for Canada Student Financial Assistance were permanently raised was 2016. After a large temporary expansion in response to the pandemic, and smaller ones since 2023, the federal government has failed to remove the precarity from this program. Every year that it is not expanded is another year that students fear that the temporary extensions will be cut in the middle of their studies.

Student leaders from across Canada have come together to identify student assistance as a core component of increasing food access, decreasing student homelessness, and affording education that is far more expensive than in generations past. 

To the over 700,000 Canadian students who benefit from the program, and eventually repay it through their increased earnings in future employment, we want to see action in the government's spring economic statement to permanently expand this program.

The Canadian Alliance of Student Associations is asking individuals to sign the petition, and share it with those who might want to. Most individuals, regardless of age or immigration status, are able to sign the petition, and can do so here. If individuals want to write an email to a local MP, they can find the contact information of that MP using this tool, and should ask whether students can depend on federal contributions to student grants and loans not being cut during your degree or diploma.