STUDENT FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE

As a result of rising tuition fees, students are increasingly relying on student financial assistance to pay for university or college. This fall 386,000 students in Canada were forced to borrow from the Canada Student Loan Program.

Tax Credits: Billions in misdirected spending

Since the mid-1990s, the federal government has spent billions on tax credits for education-related expenses. In the 2009, education-related tax credits and savings schemes will cost the federal government almost $2.42 billion in foregone revenue. In comparison, the Canada Student Loan Program lent approximately $2.12 billion in 2009. In other words, the federal government could drastically reduce the need for student loans by shifting the expense of tax credits into up-front grants.

Grants, unlike tax credits, are available to students on the "front end"‚—that is, when we need it to pay for tuition fees and textbooks. Tax credits on the other hand, are only available months (or in some cases, years) after students need cash to reduce student loan borrowing. To make matters worse, tax credits are made available to all students during tax season, directing millions of badly needed student aid dollars to families who don't necessarily need the financial help.

The Canadian Federation of Students is calling on the federal government to terminate education-related tax credits and use the savings to augment the national system of grants.