Accessible Post Secondary Education

Post secondary education has gotten increasingly un-affordable for many Canadians. At the same time, with increasing automation, outsourcing and computerization have reduced many jobs that don't require further education.

The median debt load for graduates of post secondary education in Canada is $17,500¹. For professional degrees - such as those in medicine which are desperately needed with the doctor shortage in much of Canada - the debt rate has increased to 85% of graduates with a mean debt of over sixty thousand¹.

Not only is this a strain on the individuals, it also widens the wealth gap and increases cyclical poverty with multi-generational effects. It is well past time for Canada to invest in the future. An investment in education is the best investment we can make.

The Green budget will allocate $10 billion to post-secondary and trade school supports.

• Make college and university tuition free for all Canadian students. This would be financed by redirecting existing spending on bursaries, tuition tax credits, saved costs of administering the student loan system, and the hundreds of millions of dollars of student loan defaults written off every year. Tuition scholarships provided by colleges and universities can be redirected to offset other student costs.
• Tie funding in federal-provincial transfers to universities, providing more to universities and colleges with a measurable focus on student-professor contact, mentorship, policies of inclusion and tenure track hires.
• Remove the two per cent cap on increases in education funding for Indigenous students and ensure all Indigenous youth have access to post-secondary education.
• Forgive the portion of existing student debt that is held by the federal government.
• Free tuition will eliminate the need for incentives to save for education funds.

- 2019 GPC Platform

Fully costed by the Parliamentary Budget Office

• Make college, university and trade-schools tuition free for all Canadians.
• Ensure Indigenous youth have access to post-secondary education especially removal of the 2% cap on education funding increases.
• Forgive all existing student debt that is held by the federal government.

In many ways, this is personally not an issue. However, I have family with student loan debt, and avoiding it was one of the major factors in my choosing not to becoming a veterinarian. Certainly I enjoy web development, but avoiding debt should not be the reason anyone is unable to pursue a career. I want to ensure that all opportunities are available for the next generations.