The NDP Plan

Smilin' Jack announced his plan for Post Secondary Education about a week ago, but I didn't blog on it because of the monster flu that had my spirits low.

Today Jack is back in town for a Rally for Change with local New Democrats. They're targeting youth hard, draggin along Mount A rockers, In-Flight Safety and taking out not one, but TWO ads in Dalhousie's Gazette this week. As Keith Torrie points out there's not a whole lot to change here in Halifax. We've been solid socialist orange in Halifax for the past 11 years, with the former leader of the party also being the MP for Halifax for much of that time. Speaking of which, Keith I'm glad you brought this up. The New Democratic Party of Canada is actually 47 years old. I digress.

More importantly, if elected to government, the NDP will make the following changes for students:

Enact the Post Secondary Education Act as introduced by the NDP in the last Parliament.

Ensure that students don't have crippling debts when they graduate:

• Provide a $1,000 grant to all undergraduate or equivalent students who qualify for student loans, paid at the beginning of the school year.
• Support students and post-secondary education in Quebec and the Northern Territories with financing equivalent to their government's student access and post-secondary development programs.

Keep tuition fees affordable and improve opportunities in post-secondary education by negotiating with provinces and territories improved, dedicated funding to support and enrich publicly funded and administered post-secondary institutions. This will include new initiatives to increase financial support for in-demand professionals, such as doctors and nurses, linked to them serving in areas where there are shortages.

Reform the Canada Student Loans system, including interest relief, so students are not forced to start repaying their student loans while they are still completing their education through internship, co-op or placement programs.

Encourage the best young minds to stay here in Canada by increasing funding for university and college-based research, and for graduate and post-graduate studies.

Its not bad. The $1000 grant is very similar to the Liberal plan. This plan has something the liberal plan doesn't, which is a commitment to work cooperatively with the provinces. It also committs to a dedicated transfer to the provinces through the proposed PSE act, which is good, and hopefully it is allocated on a per-student basis, but there is no mention of that here.

The Liberal plan has something that the NDP plan doesn't, which is a firm list of details. I like that the Liberals know exactly how much money they will spend on PSE, but the NDP seem to be lacking on this front. Details on promises to graduates are scarce, which is troubling as well. The liberals committed to increasing graduate funding by a third of current levels at the tri-council level, while the NDP have simply committed to increasing grad and post-grad research funding.

To here more about the NDP's Post Secondary Education Act, watch this video: