OTTAWA, August 4th 2023 - Post-secondary students across Canada continue to face barriers to accessing an affordable, innovative and high-quality education anywhere in the country. According to the Mental Health Commission of Canada, 64% of post-secondary students experience high levels of financial distress. With a rise in cost of living, a Canadian university student can expect a total annual cost of living between 21,060 and 33,060, in addition to an average annual tuition of $6,834 (undergraduate) or $7,437 (graduate).

Students from coast to coast to coast have identified that “Ensuring Equitable Access to Post-Secondary Education” will help support these rapidly inflating post-secondary expenses. CASA’s 2024 Pre-Budget recommendations direct the federal government in the best practices to work towards an equitable, accessible and affordable post-secondary system for all post-secondary students across the country. In brief, these recommendations are as follows:

1. Invest $813.6 million annually, indexed to the consumer price index, to permanently set Canada Student Grant maximums at $4,200 per year and maintain weekly loan maximums at $300/week.

2. Increase funding to the Post-Secondary Student Support Program and Métis and Inuit Post-Secondary Education Strategies to fund every eligible Indigenous student to attend post-secondary education.

3. Maintain a lower cost of textbooks and learning materials by preserving the fair dealing exception under the Copyright Act.

4. Invest $500 million over 4 years to hire 1,200 new post-secondary counsellors across Canada to address the ongoing mental health crisis in Canada’s post-secondary institutions.

5. Unlock housing supply by investing $3.25 billion dollars to support the addition of 75,000 residence beds at Canadian post-secondary institutions to be completed within six years.

6. Permanently end the 20-hour work restriction on international students.

7. Protect Canadian talent creation by increasing the value of Canada Graduate Scholarships and Post-Doctoral Fellowships by 50%, and doubling the number of these competitive research awards.

With the release of this document, the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations is hopeful that the 2024 federal budget will reflect the needs that students across the country have identified as important and meaningful for the future of post secondary education in Canada.

About CASA

Established in 1995, the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations is a non-partisan, not-for-profit national student organization composed of 25 member student associations and 11 observer student associations across the country. Through our partnership with the Quebec Student Union/Union étudiante du Québec, CASA represents 365,000 post-secondary students across Canada.