http://www.cfs-fcee.

ca/html/english/research/submissions/CFS-2009-Education-Action-
Plan.pdf

A Graduate Student Perspective on "Canada's Education Action Plan," a policy statement

of the Canadian Federation of Students.

In the Action Plan released in October 2009 - an action plan that was not presented to the
membership prior to its release - a number of recommendations are made with respect to
Canadian education policy. In this document, I will examine the impacts that such
recommendations would have on graduate students, particularly graduate students in
Quebec.

Recommendation #1
Creation of a Federal Post-Secondary Learning Act and directed education transfer.

The constitutional responsibility for education in Quebec falls solely under the
jurisdiction of the Provincial government. In other provinces, this is essentially true with
some provisos for religious education.

Extract from the Constitution Act:

93. In and for each Province the Legislature may exclusively make Laws in relation to Education, subject
and according to the following Provisions:-
[four paragraphs that cover religious education]
93A. Paragraphs (I) to (4) of section 93 do not apply to Quebec.

Recommendation #2
Creation of Statistics Canada branch for the collection and analysis ofpost-secondary
education statistics.

Good idea.

Recommendation #3
Increase the value and number of up-front grants available to students ....

Good idea, and the government is already doing it in its transformation of the Millenium
Scholaship fund (after it's legislated expiry) into a grants programme.

.. .by redirecting funds currently used on education related tax credits and savings
schemes into upfront student grants.

This will mean that all scholarship and fellowship money will be taxed. For graduate
students with NSERC/SSHRC/CIHR or FQRNTIFQRSCIFRSQ fellowships, this means
that the value of the award will decrease by thousands of dollars, as previously
taxable income is taxed. Graduate students with such awards are unlikely to be eligible
for federal grant programmes.

In addition, the elimination of the textbook tax credit and tuition fee and education tax
credits will mean that tuition fees paid will no longer give the student tax credits,
credits that might have counterbalanced the proposed loss of tax-free status on
fellowships.

Recommendation #4
Double the number of CGS fellowships across the tri-council granting agencies.

Good idea, although once they lost their tax free status, as proposed by the CFS, a large
proportion of the money will just go right back to the government.

Recommendation #5
Increase funding for aboriginal post-secondary education.

Good idea.

Summary

So, we have two minor good ideas (StatsCan branch, aboriginal education) one large
good idea that the Conservatives definitely won't do (double number of CGS
fellowships), one idea that is contrary to the Canadian constitution (targeted education
funding and a Federal act covering education), and a plan to drastically reduce the
financial resources of graduate students by imposing taxation on fellowships.

So we see the brilliant planning of the CFS in action, a plan in which 1.5 billion dollars in
new Federal money would enter into education funding, and in which individual graduate
students would lose thousands of dollars to Revenue Canada.

Graduate students are already struggling with low levels of funding, difficult supervisors,
and the multiple exigencies of research, teaching, and keeping afloat - the last think we
need is the leadership of the CFS, purportedly representing all students, to recommend
that we lost thousands of dollars from our fellowships.