Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC)

I had the opportunity to speak to your Association a few years ago, early in our mandate. A lot has happened since then.

Our government faced a number of serious challenges when we took office, and none more serious than the fiscal challenge we inherited from our predecessors. The ability of government to act to meet the challenges of a changing world was severely restricted.

The deficit was $42 billion, and growing. Canada was close to losing its economic sovereignty. The future of our cherished social programs was threatened.

We have acted with determination -- but also with compassion -- to restore the nation's fiscal health. As a result, we can now see the light at the end of the tunnel. We can now afford to make some investments in a stronger society. Investments in our future. Investments that a few short years ago would have been impossible. Investments that are possible because of the efforts of the Canadian people to help get our fiscal house in order.

And yet, we do not have a lot of money available for new spending. We have to choose our priorities very strategically to prepare our country for the next century. In our budget a few weeks ago and in a speech I delivered in Ottawa a few days before that, we set out three priorities we must address beginning now and in the years ahead. One is child poverty. Another is securing and modernizing medicare. And the third, which I will speak about today, is our responsibility as a society and as a government to invest in education, knowledge and innovation.

One of the most important things the government of Canada must do to prepare Canada for the 21st century is to support the national effort to equip Canadians to compete in a changing world. That effort has to be a priority for our country if Canada is to continue to prosper in the new global economy.

As a government, it is not good enough to plan for next week or next month or next year. We have to prepare Canada for the next ten, twenty, thirty years.

Canada's future depends on giving our young people the opportunity to be productive human beings. Canadian students are not only competing with the students at the next desk; they are competing with students at desks around the world.

A highly-educated, highly-skilled workforce is the single best guarantee of Canada's prosperity in the next century.

The government of Canada has a responsibility to support students, to help ensure access to post-secondary education, to promote our scientific community, and to support research and development. Since taking office, we have tried to fulfill these responsibilities in new ways. We are thinking strategically, trying to get more leverage, and creating new forms of critical mass. Above all, we are establishing partnerships. Our government wants to work in partnership with you to help our students get the best possible education.

In the February budget, we announced the establishment of an $800 million Canada Foundation for Innovation. It is a major commitment to work in partnership with others to modernize Canada's research infrastructure. I believe it is one of the most significant measures ever taken by any federal government to help ensure that Canada's post-secondary institutions are internationally competitive.

It is our priority as a government, and it must be our priority as a country to be able to compete with the best in the world, for innovation, ideas, research and development. We will either move ahead with conviction, or we will lag behind, and lose our brightest young minds to other countries.

The creation of the Canada Foundation for Innovation is the result of collaboration before the budget between the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada and the ministers of financeand industry. You deserve congratulations on a job well done.

And so I urge research institutions to make the most of this opportunity. I think that colleges, universities and research hospitals are well aware of the significance of the Foundation. We have to ensure that your potential partners also understand its significance. Partnership will be the key to the Foundation's success.

Through partnerships among research institutions, the business community, the voluntary sector, individuals, and provincial governments, the Foundation has the potential to trigger as much as $2 billion worth of investments in the research infrastructure of our universities, colleges and research hospitals over the next five to seven years.

Another one of the important responsibilities of the government of Canada is to support students and help ensure access to post-secondary education.

The new and better-paying jobs that are the result of innovation and economic restructuring require increasing levels of skill among the workforce. Without a qualified workforce, it is hard to create or use the latest in technology. As a result, higher levels of education and skills are critical to the ability of Canadians to secure their own and Canada's future. But at the same time, the costs of higher education are rising.

The 1997 budget proposes a substantial enrichment of federal assistance through the tax system to higher education. The budget provides new funding to help students and their families cope with increasing expenses, to help workers enhance their skills, to help students facing higher debt loads after graduation, and to encourage parents to save for their children's education.

Our government has also invested an additional $2.5 billion in the Canada Student Loans Program over five years.

In our recent budget, we announced that the government of Canada is ready to pursue with interested provinces, lenders and other groups an additional option for repaying student loans. Students would be able to choose between the current type of repayment arrangements and a repayment schedule directly tied to their income. I know that this is something that your Association has been promoting for some time. I would like to thank you for your efforts to help the government in preparing this part of the budget.

Our government is keenly aware of the importance of science and technology in developing an innovative economy. After we took office in 1993, we initiated a major review of our science and technology programs. The result was a new federal strategy, launched in March 1996.

We are focusing our efforts more carefully, trying to get a bigger bang for our buck. We are emphasizing partnership, leverage, and networking. And we have made it clear that the government itself is eager to be an active partner.

We launched Technology Partnerships Canada to help ensure that Canada remains internationally competitive in key high-tech industries.

We established the Canadian Technology Network to help provide businesses with better access to the expertise in universities, colleges and other research institutions.

Our recent budget allocated funding to continue the Industrial Research Assistance Program, a successful national program helping to transfer technology to small business.

The budget also makes the Networks of Centres of Excellence a permanent feature of our research investment system. When something works this well, we think we should keep it. The Networks link post-secondary researchers, governments and the private sector. They are unique in the world, and they are proving that, even in a country with such a dispersed population, we can create critical mass in some important research areas.

We also invested in the Canadian Network for Advancement of Research, Industry and Education -- CANARIE -- which brings together the major players in information technology. Our $80 million investment in CANARIE has levered close to $600 million in investment from the CANARIE partners. That's the kind of leverage and cooperation that we want to see continue.

These are exciting developments that reflect Canada's commitment to stay on the leading edge of technological change, and to ensure that the various players in research, education and technology diffusion work together.

Another one of our government's priorities has been the promotion of Canada's educational institutions and resources internationally.

I had the pleasure of travelling with some of you during our recent Team Canada mission to Asia, the largest trade mission in Canadian history. Representatives of 50 Canadian educational institutions joined Team Canada, including many university and college presidents. In fact, education was the second largest sector group in the delegation. Even more important, at my insistence, we brought a number of students with us.

The export of educational goods and services is big business for Canada. That's why the federal government has opened seven Canadian Education Centres in major Asian capitals in order to help promote Canadian educational institutions. Later this year, we will open new centres in New Delhi, Beijing, and Mexico City.

One of the highlights of our trip was the Canadian Education Fair in Bangkok. Over 5,000 students came from all over Southeast Asia over a three-day period to learn more about Canadian schools.

I was happy to see that more than a dozen education agreements were signed during our trip, including various types of exchange and cooperation agreements. That means more Asian students will be making an important contribution to the Canadian economy. International students also bring new ways of thinking to classroom discussions, and help give our students a better understanding of the world. And when foreign students go back home, they become great ambassadors for Canada.

We all know that Canada's schools have a lot to offer international students: our educational standards are high, and our tuition fees are relatively modest. But we have to make sure that others know this too -- because we face stiff competition from countries such as Australia, Britain, France, and the United States. I am pleased to see that effective marketing through our Canadian Education Centres has been paying off.

During the most recent Team Canada mission, a number of premiers and educators brought to my attention their concerns about problems with Canada's student visa process. They believe Canada has been placed in an unfavourable position compared to other countries because of barriers in the system -- particularly the double checking of medical examinations conducted in foreign countries.

As a result of our trip, we have taken action. I am pleased to announce today that we will modify medical procedures in order to streamline the student visa process, while protecting the health of Canadians. We will pilot the implementation of a streamlined medical examination process in four Asian countries -- Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Malaysia -- as well as in Mexico. In these pilot sites, students who are examined in their country of origin and meet Canadian medical requirements would no longer require a verification by a Canadian medical officer, except in unusual circumstances.

We have to continue to work together to ensure that Canada's recruitment of foreign students is successful. Our government is stepping up its efforts. I know that your commitment is equally strong. Just as government must streamline its administrative procedures, so I urge you to streamline your admissions policies to give foreign students timely notice of admission to our post-secondary institutions.

Of course international education involves much more than the recruitment of students from abroad.

Canada has a proud record as a country committed to sharing knowledge, particularly in the field of international development. Whether we are training police in Haiti or judges in China, we are sharing our values and our expertise with others.

It is not a coincidence that the World Bank will hold its first ever conference on global knowledge in Toronto in June. It is recognition of the positive role that Canada has played as a sharer of knowledge -- through our schools and through a host of agencies.

Canada has an important future as a knowledge-sharer. Obviously colleges and universities have a vital role to play. Canada's role in the world will increasingly be based on the way in which we project our culture, our values, and our knowledge internationally.

We want to see Canadians exporting our educational goods and services in the broadest possible ways, using all the technologies at our disposal.

We want colleges and universities to see the government as your partner in this important venture. Let's make it a priority to get organized, and get moving.

Working in partnership in all these areas, let us do our best to ensure that all Canadians have the education and the skills they need to enter the 21st century with hope and confidence in their future.