The Martlet

Rob Fleming is the NDP's Advanced Education Critic.

Last week's federal budget missed an opportunity to adequately boost post-secondary funding and research activity to strategically help our economy's short-term rescue and long-term prosperity.

B.C.'s budget, due on Feb. 17, cannot afford to similarly ignore the positive, immediate economic benefits of directing new public spending on higher education in this current downturn — and for the future.

So far, Premier Gordon Campbell hasn't given us any confidence that he understands this.

Recall last spring: the B.C. Liberals cut 2.6 per cent from university and college operating budgets and reduced student aid by 7 per cent.

Then, after the global crisis emerged, Campbell hastily crafted his November 10-point economic plan, which failed to include a single dime for education. It maintained the $60 million cut from B.C. universities and colleges earlier in the year and added nothing to stimulate the economy's knowledge and innovation capacity in our university-based research community.

While economists urge government to address consumer confidence and personal debt levels, the B.C. Liberals have stayed the course on ignoring the financial plight of B.C. students — now among the most heavily indebted in Canada. They did nothing when campus-based student assistance from bursary endowments took a significant hit.

In contrast to Campbell, Carole James' economic package would deliver for post-secondary education. Her plan calls for allotting additional operating dollars to stem declining per-student funding and supporting enrollment growth, expanding research activity, raising graduate scholarships and lowering student debt — including cutting student loan interest rates and creating a four-year student grant program.

While infrastructure funds for campus bricks and mortar projects did feature in the federal Conservative budget, the rules remain unclear as to how readily institutions are able to match and access these dollars. In B.C., the federal addition will barely replace the province's $100 million reduction to this year's post-secondary capital allocation.

Like the B.C. Liberals current budget, the Harper budget failed to provide any significant new investment in the human capital that is the engine of our institutions — faculty, graduate and undergraduate students and the agencies that enable research activity.

Additional public spending on skills training, and research and development activities at our major universities is critical to help communities and industries adapt, change and remain competitive and innovative.

Right now, B.C.'s jobless numbers are rising quickly. So is the demand for advanced education and retraining. Keeping and creating new jobs in every sector of the economy (natural resources, manufacturing, health and human services, tourism and retail) is simply not possible without our advanced education institutions meeting this new demand and filling our province's labour market needs.

We need to think about how we can help the next group of B.C. entrepreneurs, scholars, tradespersons, administrators and community leaders contribute to this province. Smart new public spending aimed at stimulating our economy and the skills and creativity of our citizens must invest in our colleges, universities and technical institutes.