gazette@watserv1.waterloo.edu (Chris Redmond) (02/01/91)
It looks as though a provincial government announcement about university funding for 1991-92 won't be made this week. Earlier predictions had been that Queen's Park would deliver the news by the end of January. (The senate finance committee has a meeting scheduled for February 19, to talk about the 1991-92 budget for UW, which largely depends on what the government says about grants and tuition fees. Stay tuned.) So next week's Gazette won't have a budget or funding announcement. It does, however, have this background story (subject to change between now and deadline). OTTAWA CRITICIZED FOR FUNDING CUTS The federal government's plan to cap its payments to the provinces for health and post-secondary education has come under fire. "Bill C-69 is not in the interests of higher education in Canada," Claude Lajeunesse, president of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, recently told a parliamentary committee studying legislation that's aimed at curbing such cash transfers. And Ontario's treasurer, Floyd Laughren, expressed his fears at last week's meeting of federal-provincial finance ministers. Ottawa could cut its transfers in the next federal budget, he said. "We are very fearful if the (Persian gulf) war was to end tomorrow, we are going to be faced with sharing a smaller pie in terms of transfer payments," Laughren told reporters. He was speaking just days before the expected announcement of university funding in this province for 1991-92. Queen's Park has not set a date for the announcement, but mid-February is one current guess. It's up to each provincial government how much it spends on universities, but a share of the money comes from Ottawa through transfer payments. When the transfers, known as "established programs financing", were introduced, Ottawa was paying 50 per cent of the total government subsidy for higher education, but that number has risen. In some parts of the country, provincial governments have effectively cut their own contributions to near zero. Now Ottawa wants to limit its transfer to an annual 5 per cent increase (less than the current rate of growth) for Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta, considered the well-off provinces. Elsewhere, the increases would not be capped. The AUUC and other university groups are worried that the cap will eventually eliminate cash transfers to the provinces. This would further reduce the federal role in higher education, which has already shrunk in recent years. "Canada's future resides in its human rather than its natural resources," Lajeunesse said. "What we need now is a national strategy leading to a| level of investment that ensures the global competitiveness of Canadian higher education and research." The federal cap would be in effect for two years, if the bill clears the House of Commons and Senate.