The team at HESA towers was up late last night putting together – as we do every year – a review of the Government of Canada’s Budget 2015, specifically as it relates to higher education and training.  You can read our full analysis, HERE.  Below are some of our key takeaways and conclusions from Budget 2015.

This year’s budget is a mix of the somewhat good and the moderately disappointing.

On student assistance, Budget 2015 takes some important strides towards improving PSE access, and is undoubtedly the most SFA-focused budget since Budget 2008, which introduced the Canada Student Grant Program. The seeds are planted here for a much simpler need assessment process, and one which is much friendlier to dependent students from middle-class families. On the other hand, if you believe student aid needs to become more targeted on poorer students rather than less so, then this budget may be less welcome.

The Budget’s stance on skills can best be described as useful, without being either bold or visionary. The focus on responsiveness to the needs of industry, as well as labour market training for Aboriginal peoples, should both be welcomed. They are sensible investments, which for once do not involve windfall transfers to apprentices. Efforts to harmonize apprenticeship training and certification across Canada’s provinces and territories, and to improve the availability of labour market information, should also be welcomed, even if the sums of money involved – particularly for labour market information – are a little on the derisory side.

Where the budget seriously fails is on research: though the Tories have made sure they cannot be accused of abandoning research, they are certainly not making it a priority, either. The zero increase for granting councils in 2015-16 will be seen as a slap in the face by the research community. The government’s insistence on dictating the minutiae of how to spend funds provided to granting councils (starting in 2016-17) lays bare the its attitude that it knows a lot more about research priorities than do researchers themselves. This does not do the government any credit. It will no doubt point to its six-year $1.33 billion investment in the Canada Foundation for Innovation as ‘the largest ever investment in research’, but this is sheer puffery: at an average of $222 million in new funding per year, this is substantially below the 1997-2012 average of $370 million per year in funding. This will make it difficult for Canada to maintain its position as a research leader in areas such as science, engineering, and medicine.

In short, it would be churlish in the extreme to accuse the government (as some have done) of having done nothing for the post-secondary sector. There are a lot of other sectors that would love to get as much attention as post-secondary received in this budget. But at the same time, it’s difficult not to look at this package – particularly around CFI and the granting councils – and think that as a country, we could have done a whole lot better.