OTTAWA (CUP) — Ian Boyko says it won’t be easy, but he likes his chances as he leads the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) into a battle with Prime Minister Paul Martin.
Boyko, the national chairperson of CFS, says his team is working hard gearing up for a national day of action Feb. 4, and with a federal election looming in the spring, it’s a great time, he says, to get policy debates in the public. And now, Boyko might have the Young Liberals of Canada as an ally.
Their newly elected president, Ann Takagi, says she wants to work with groups such as the CFS and the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA) to make post-secondary education an issue.
“Education is as important as health care,” said Takagi. “I want to see something more tangible for students,” she added, explaining that in recent years, more money has gone to research, but it’s difficult to get through school on student loans.
While Boyko remains slightly optimistic, NDP post-secondary education critic Libby Davies isn’t. “It [Paul Martin] is all a charade. We have to show his record, the public record of what he has actually done. He’s completely been the architect of the destruction of our social framework,” she said. “The CHST [Canada Health and Social Transfer] has been a political, fiscal and social failure,” she said. “Student’s situation has deteriorated.” The CHST is a federal transfer payment for health, social programs and post-secondary education. In the last budget, the Liberals announced that as of Apr. 1, 2004, the CHST would be split into the Canadian Health Transfer and Canadian Social Transfer. Boyko’s team, in co-operation with the Fédération Etudiante Universitaire du Quebec (FEUQ) is calling for a dedicated single federal transfer payment for post-secondary education. They want it funded at 1993-94 levels when the cash transfer for health, social programs and post-secondary education stood at $18.8 billion. Their wish isn’t unlike that of the Canadian Association of University Teachers. The organization is calling for a dedicated fund to be maintained at 0.5 per cent of Gross Domestic Product, a level consistent with that in the late 1970s and early 1980s. This would require an immediate investment of $2 billion.
The Young Liberals say they can use their face-to-face access to Martin to students’ advantage. “As Young Liberals we get to sit on platform committee,” Takagi explained. “Mr. Martin has been very consultative. We’ve seen him meet with the executive.”
