Budget 2024 has gotten quite a bit of coverage in the news lately, centred around the changes to the capital gains tax. Some experts claim that the new federal budget provides a welcome reprieve to families and disadvantaged communities, but others have been critical of the capital gains measures.
What hasn’t been discussed in nearly enough detail is how the new budget will affect post-secondary students.
We’ve broken the budget into six categories that are most relevant to students: housing, post-grad investment, technology research, student supports, Indigenous supports and official languages, and equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI).
Housing
Victoria housing is the third most expensive real estate in the country, surpassed only by Vancouver and Toronto. Not only is housing in Victoria exorbitantly priced, but there’s also a complete lack of housing stock, making it nearly impossible for students to have housing security while they study. The 2024 budget addresses the housing needs of students; however, the measures being implemented will not provide results for years to come.
Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) external executive Prince Solanki says that housing is the number-one problem facing students today.
“Housing right now, that is the main issue,” he says. “I’ve seen some students who are living in their car, actually. It was so bad.”
The measures taken by the government in the 2024 budget to alleviate the pressures of housing for students include $19 million toward GST exemption for campuses that build purpose-built student housing. While this tax incentive will certainly help colleges and universities looking to build temporary housing, it falls short when compared to the $15 billion in funding being offered to private developers through the Apartment Construction Loan Program—and that’s a top-up of an existing $40 billion fund, bringing the total funding to private developers to $55 billion over the next five years.
I think the government could do far better than lining the pockets of private developers for a projected 131,000 more rental homes by 2030. This is a bit of a nothing burger when you consider Canada is short 300,000 units now. Subsidizing for-profit businesses to conduct normal operations will only work to drive up costs due to poor competition. The government would have done well to invest that $55 billion into reducing the suffering we see on our streets by offering much more than $19 million to student housing, or by increasing funding for truly affordable housing.
The big win regarding student housing comes from the inclusion of housing costs when calculating student loans. Students will see an immediate benefit—possibly the biggest win—by having more adequate coverage of actual housing costs. This is a much-needed change that will better support students, especially when those students live in one of the most expensive cities in the country.
Postgraduate investment
The 2024 budget offers much-needed investments in our humanitarian postgraduate research. The government is offering $1.8 billion toward Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) research through the tri-council, which is comprised of The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). In addition to the $1.8 billion earmarked for CORE, the government is also investing $825 million toward increasing the number of available postgraduate scholarships and fellowships. The government estimates that this will allow 1,720 more scholarships or fellowships.
Lastly, the government has committed $26.9 million to improve the managing system for issuing grants.
Technology and research funding
Students in STEM programs will be happy to know that the federal government has committed significant, and much needed, funding toward the technology and research sectors. Specifically, the government is putting $2 billion into AI research and development and another $3.1 billion toward nuclear energy. Given the government’s mandate to tackle climate change and find new strategies to replace the oil and gas sector, investment into alternative energy is critical to maintaining sustainable energy.
In addition to AI and energy, the government splashed a bit of cash into space exploration, arctic research, subatomic particle research, improving research databases, and the Brain Canada Foundation, a national charitable organization dedicated to brain research and health inequities.
Student supports
The government has heard the calls from our international student communities and has increased the allowable student work hours from 20 to 24 per week. On the surface, this sounds rather paltry, but Solanki says it will be helpful for international students trying to schedule work shifts; he also says that the increased hours can help with mental health. The 2024 budget offers a direct investment of $500 million toward supporting the mental health of our youth.
“Students who are not getting enough money… They’ll be more stressed out,” he says. “So, it does have an effect on mental stress.”
Additionally, the government has stepped up its measures to support students with the cost of schooling and housing. First and foremost, it was a welcome surprise to see the government extend the increase of full-time student grants from $3,000 a year to $4,200 a year for 2024-2025. This is still $1,800 less than pandemic levels, but at least we can all sleep well knowing that the amounts won’t be reduced to pre-pandemic levels. The additional $1,200 a year will make a massive difference to many students struggling with today’s market.
The government has also permanently waived credit checks on student loans for mature students, which will allow more individuals who’ve experienced life difficulties or are economically disadvantaged to receive an education. The government predicts this measure will impact about 1,000 students who otherwise would be blocked from higher education due to financial constraints.
The government has also increased the threshold for interest-free student loans to $300 a week, up from $210 a week. The extra $90 amounts to an additional $1,260 dollars for full-time students per semester.
Added to this is a commitment over the coming years to increase funding to continue the Youth Employment Strategy and the Student Work Placement Program. The government hasn’t actually committed any new funds to either of these two programs in the 2024 budget, but at least they are talking about it—I’d have liked to have seen at least a modest amount earmarked for continuing to support young talent entering the workforce.
Students entering the fields of health care and education will be happy to know that the government is offering complete loan forgiveness to those who become a nurse, doctor, or early childhood educator in rural communities. This particular addition will help many communities that do not have adequate access to healthcare and education.
Indigenous supports
I think this section of the budget was a flop. While many positives came out of this budget in efforts to support Indigenous communities, I feel the government fell short on some areas of its funding. For example, Budget 2023 commited $1.4 billion dollars to official languages (English and French), with Budget 2024 investing an additional $26 million over the next five years. Yet, Budget 2024 only gave Indigenous peoples a total of $290 million for languages and cultural reclamation and revitalization. French and English languages have historically been well-funded, maybe even over-funded, whereas Indigenous languages have barely even registered within Canadian federal budgets.
This government has shouted loudly about how committed they are to Truth and Reconciliation, but when they earmark $1.4 billion to already well-funded and established languages in last year’s budget and only $290 million to Indigenous languages and culture in this year’s, it makes one wonder if the government is just giving lip service to one of the more important aspects of Canadian culture.
The government has stepped up to the plate in other areas that support Indigenous communities. One such area, on-reserve K-12 education, received $1.194 billion to support youth and promote education in ways that are consistent with Indigenous learning. The budget goes on to further support higher education in remote northern Indigenous communities by investing $5.2 million in an Indigenous-led post-secondary school, the Dechinta Centre for Research and Learning in the Northwest Territories.
The 2024 budget invests further into Indigenous mental health, to the tune of $630.2 million. This is a drastic increase, but still falls far short of what is needed, based on the current cost of mental health care. Indigenous research obtained a modest increase in funding of $30 million, while adding $242.7 million to help Indigenous students access post-secondary studies through the Post-Secondary Student Support Program through Indigenous Services Canada, and an ongoing $68.1 million for Métis and Inuit students through the Post-secondary Education Strategies Fund set forth in the 2019 budget.
All total, the government has committed $9.02 billion for Indigenous communities. This amount is small when compared to the $55 billion being doled out to private development firms, along with provinces and urban centres, which often help large corporate businesses more than the communities they operate in.
The good news is that Camosun strongly supports Indigenous communities, says Solanki.
“Camosun is always going to support the Indigenous peoples,” he says. “There is always support for Indigenous peoples, we always recognize them. And that’s a great thing. I would say the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations has been working hard these last few years for the Indigenous people.”
EDI
EDI refers to equity, diversity, and inclusion. The government has shifted focus around EDI by tackling hate against the 2SLGBTQI+ community. They are giving $3 million to help increase security at pride parades and another $12.9 million to improve the availability and collection of hate-crime data.
The government has also added another $12 million to the federal Women and Gender Equality Canada department in project funding aimed at combating hate against the 2SLGBTQI+ community.
Overall, the budget has addressed some of the more pressing concerns students may have; some areas received more funding than expected, where other areas received significantly less than expected. While the budget clearly expresses a desire by the Canadian government to have a “no one left behind” strategy, I do not feel that this budget will help lower the cost of living for Canadians, especially students. The 2024 budget falls short where it matters most: the cost of living and housing. The budget is highly contentious and has faced fierce opposition by political parties and industry experts, even though there were some big wins for students.
The addition to student housing support is welcome news, especially for institutions looking to increase student residences, however, the restrictions on incoming international students over the next two years will make it harder for universities and colleges to afford such costly capital expenditure projects.
On the social aspects of the budget, I feel the government has really met Canadian’s needs, like the elimination of credit screening for mature students and the changes to allowable work hours for international students.
The budget falls short in some areas, like the lack of funds allocated toward revitalizing Indigenous languages, but the budget did make some big moves in supporting students with the cost of education, like the inclusion of housing costs for student loans, the extension of the increase to student grants, the increase of allowable hours for international students, and the incentivization for schools to build student housing.