9 million adult learners also forgotten in the “budget for everyone”

OTTAWA – At a time of skyrocketing tuition fees and student debt, as well as chronic underfunding for adult literacy programs, the Conservative plan to build a “knowledge advantage” for Canada takes one small step forward and two steps back, said NDP Post-Secondary Education Critic Denise Savoie (Victoria).

“With over one million students in Canada, this budget directly affects only one thousand,” said Savoie. “There’s more money to attract students from other countries than to increase access for prospective Canadian college, apprenticeship, undergraduate, medical or law students combined.”

Savoie dismissed the minor tweaks to the RESP system, which offer no benefit for parents who cannot afford to save, or who can make only modest contributions.

“We have $40 million for high-income parents of young children, and $0 for low and middle-income students and families who have to pay tuition this September,” said Savoie. “We’re unfairly asking many parents to choose between feeding or educating their kids.”

To make matters worse, students were explicitly excluded from the Working Income Tax Benefit, even though hundreds of thousands of students have to work full-time to afford their tuition fees and lower their eventual student debt.

“There is no plan for student debt, no plan to ensure that the expiring Millennium Scholarship funding remains in the system as needs-based student grants, and no plan to make education more affordable for low- and middle-income families,” said Savoie.

Finally, Savoie pointed to the omission of adult literacy funding in the budget, except for plans to download that responsibility fully to the provinces.

“Adult literacy funding was inadequate under the Liberals, and it is being gutted by the Conservatives,” said Savoie. “If we want an equitable and competitive economy, we need federal leadership on literacy, not abandonment.”

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I will post my thoughts on this later, just sharing this press release for now.

Just letting everyone know about this event next week:

January 6
6:30 PM
Higher Ground Coffee in Kensington
1126 Kensington Road

Another get together similar to the one in December. We can have political and casual discussions, and just get to know each other. If you are are youth (14-25) and are interested in the NDP, this is a great way to meet other youth in Calgary with similiar beliefs and ideas. We will also be finalizing our plans for an upcoming event at Mount Royal College. Also some members from Edmonton will be in Calgary joining us.

Hope to see new and familiar faces at this social. Bring a friend or two if you can.

Click here or look above for the full image.

Well I was out in Kensington today for about 2 hours. I was able to collect about 75 signatures (138 in total now) for this petition calling upon the Government of Canada to begin the withdrawal of Canadian Forces from the counter-insurgency mission in Southern Afghanistan. The petion being in paper and not online, of course.

I was surprised at the good response I got today. I’d say around 60-70 percent of people who actually listened or read to see what the petition was about, signed it. It’s definitely not what you hear the media reporting about public perception to the war. My goal is to get 500 signatures by the end of November (May even be able to get more if I find more time and people to help me out.) Next week I plan on taking some other young New Democrats with me, and maybe we can double/triple the amount of signatures.

If you haven’t signed the petition yet, I suggest you do online. This mission is completely unbalanced. For every $1 spent on aid/reconstruction, now the Conservative government is spending $9 on the military effort in Southern Afghanistan. Also there is no clear definition for the mission and no exit strategy. It’s time to start question this mission, and it’s not unpatriotic or against the troops to do so. It’s democracy.

I’m glad that the federal NDP site is now being updated on a daily basis with usually a few press releases a day. Today I read this one. It’s about the NDP’s ideas for the solar industry.

It got me thinking though. Why not put in a plan so that every new federal government building is equipped with solar panels? The plan could also be extended to allow a fund for renovations to government buildings to equip them with solar panels. This would save taxpayers a lot of money in energy costs in the long run. Also homeowners can sell excess energy from solar powers to the power company and pump it back into the grid, why not have the federal government do this as well?

This plan also has many other benefits, than just saving money. It would be a step towards helping us meet our Kyoto targets and if provinces take part in a plan like this, it would have a tremendous positive effect on green house gases! Also it would be a huge boost to the solar power industry, which theoretically would cause prices to go down for ordinary consumers who want to help out the environment while saving money on their energy bills each month.