Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First, Mr. Speaker, as the motion clearly says, I believe the Student Financial Assistance Program has a good
record of supporting our students with wide and generous allowances as good or better than any in Canada.
We were told the Scholarship Fund was unsubscribed at about $100,000, but find over $380,000 was allocated this past year. Under this misunderstanding and without any consultation with the public, we let the program be terminated. However, we now understand this sudden and complete action has left many students in the lurch financially and they have lost a tool for competing for additional financial support. Even though the budget is passed, it is not too late to improve the handling of this matter.
There is action we can take that is actually responsible, recognizes merit and greatly reduces cost. Mr. Speaker, given that the current level of Student Financial Assistance Program support is healthy and appropriate, given my belief that more focus is required in early childhood education where big returns are to be had and, finally, that we do have limited resources, I can accept the need for a considerably scaled back Scholarship Program.
However, the program should have been scaled back in a transitional way so that those counting on it were not left hanging. Also, there is important value and merit-based recognition, both psychologically for motivating and encouraging students and for their use in competing for further financial support. We can correct this by reinstating transitional dollars for the program to an increasingly reduced level this year and next and by redesigning the program to indeed recognize academic achievement accompanied by a more modest financial reward.
Mr. Speaker, this matter is urgent. Students have long since begun preparations for the next school year. With a sudden and complete elimination of our only merit-based program, we have left scholarship recipients high and dry and financially struggling. Let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater by eliminating the good of the more modest recognition program.
We need to fund a transitional program and institute a modified merit-based recognition program at low cost, and we need to take a closer look at how well student financial assistance is working and how it fits into the lifelong experience of education.
As I have often stated in the House, my belief is the area of early childhood education is now recognized as laying the foundation to maximize the potential for later learning and needs additional emphasis in our allocation of education dollars. I am willing to accept, in balancing our priorities and recognizing the rapid growth of the scholarship beyond its original intent, that we need to scale the scholarship dollars back, but let’s do this responsibly, acknowledge the value of recognizing academic merit, and do it in a transitional way that
both respect some of our hardest working students and demonstrates our awareness of people’s needs and the need for government to act responsibly.
I look forward to any further discussion from my colleagues and immediate action from the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.