Paul Ledwell
In late March, over the course of 72 hours, both the federal and Ontario provincial budgets were presented and brought some much-needed additional funding to universities, including the University of Ottawa.
The central piece to the March 20 federal budget was attention to fiscal arrangements with the provinces, including funding support for post-secondary education. Beginning in 2008–09, the federal government will increase the cash transfers to the provinces for universities and colleges by $800 million, to $3.2 billion per year. This amount will increase by three per cent each year thereafter. While this is good news, it will not necessarily mean new funding in Ontario, where the provincial government has set a multi-year course in its already-established Reaching Higher plan. Begun in 2005, the plan invests $6.2 billion in universities and colleges over five years.
The federal budget also announced $1.3 billion in new funding for research and innovation, including increases for the granting councils, for the indirect costs of research, and for Genome Canada and CANARIE, all of which will provide opportunities for uOttawa researchers.
Significant funds were earmarked for eight Centres of Excellence, including $15 million for the University’s Centre for Stroke Recovery, led by Dr. Antoine Hakim. Additional funds will be made available to these and other Centres of Excellence on a competitive basis.
Graduate students will welcome an additional 1,000 Canada Graduate Scholarships, which will augment the 4,000 existing scholarships administered by the Granting Councils. Graduate and post-doctoral students in some fields can also look forward to a new program of internships with business to be housed in the Networks of Centres of Excellence.
Some additional provisions to assist international students were also announced in the federal budget.
Few new measures specifically geared to undergraduate students were included in either budget. The federal budget did launch a review of the Canada Student Loans Program, with changes to be announced in 2008. The Ontario budget announced increases to the hourly minimum wage from $8 to $10.25 by 2010, an issue actively promoted by students.
The Government of Ontario also announced the immediate allocation of $390 million in infrastructure costs for universities and colleges, a fund derived from the Infrastructure Trust announced in the 2006 federal budget. This money, $225 million of which is earmarked for universities, will be used to alleviate immediate cost pressures, support enrollment increases, and address space issues.
Finally, the Ontario budget reiterated the importance of providing funding to universities to ensure opportunities for francophone students and students from other under-represented groups. The University continues to discuss long-term arrangements in these areas with the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities.
