John Manley Deals With Post Secondary

November 18, 2002 Vol. 32 No. 12

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Five questions for
John Manley
An exclusive Gazette interview with
the Deputy Prime Minister

Q.How important is supporting post-secondary education for the federal government?

A.It’s been one of the themes we have pursued consistently in budgets since 1996 when we started the Canadian Foundation for Innovation. It has included a lot of initiatives such as the Millennium Scholarship, the Canada Research Chairs, increased funding for the granting councils and creation of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, which links very closely to the universities. That has been a consistent and continuing theme of the federal government, and one that I intend to see continued.

Q.What can you as finance minister do to make permanent the funding of indirect research costs?

A.It’s a matter of affordability in relation to all of the other demands for funding. My hope is that we can maintain that contribution. I know from the universities I’ve met with, that it is their first priority and when we get closer to budget day, we’ll see what we can do about it.

Q.According to the AUCC, there will be approximately 30-40,000 new faculty needed to address growth and retirement concerns. What can the federal government do to address this situation?

A.That is an issue that has been raised at some of our discussions with the universities. I don’t think anyone has shown me a plan yet of what a program would look like to increase the number of graduate students and keep them here. I think that is what would be required, but it would have to go into the mill with the other things that need to be done for universities. I know it’s a growing concern at the university level as a generation of university teachers gets close to retirement.

Q.With tuition fees continuing to rise, does the federal government have any plans for the Canada Student Loans program, or any plans in general to help support undergraduate students?

A.The most recent things we’ve done is – in addition to the enhanced ability to save for student fees through RESPs – has been the deductibility of student loan interest, as well as the Millennium Scholarships and the increase in the exemptions for awards and scholarships under the income tax act. So that is the package thus far. I think we are going to need to continue to follow what’s happening and see if there are additional things we can and should do.

Q.As finance minister, what can you do to support the continued growth of research and innovation in Canadian universities?

A.I think there are a lot of things we can do; it’s a question again of what is affordable. We continue funding the foundations that support infrastructure development, CFI and CIHR in particular. There is continuing funding for the research granting councils and that funding includes the social sciences and humanities, which sometimes get forgotten in the mix, but I think they are important elements needing support. I think the incentives we have been working on for commercialization of research out of universities – support for targeted areas of research that complement the basic research, such as environmental technologies and information technologies – is important. I think there is a range of things that we have managed to do quite successfully and we need to enhance and continue.