The Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA) took to Parliament Hill from Nov. 18-20, with student leaders from across the country pushing for “fairness in Canada’s system of student financial aid,” according to a CASA press release Nov. 18.
Jen Carter, vice-president (external) for the University of Western Ontario’s Students’ Council and president-elect of the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA), was in Ottawa last week. She said CASA spent the week meeting with about 140 MPs and other “stakeholders in the federal government.”
“CASA lobbied on several main priorities, the most prominent of which were improvements to student financial aid and mental health,” Carter said.
Carter represented Western University, which is a member of CASA. Neither Carleton University nor the University of Ottawa is a member.
“CASA has asked that the government increase grants for low and middle-income students on the Canada Student Grant Program,” Carter said.
Another issue addressed was that of the Canada Student Loan Program. Under current regulations, students can only earn up to $100 per week while taking courses, according to the press release.
“Aid is clawed back dollar-for-dollar if a student earns more. It has been reported that students work an average of 18 hours per week, which puts them far beyond this threshold even at minimum wage across Canada. Working students are often taking jobs because of deficient financial aid, and this compounds the issue,” said the release.
Carter said MPs were “incredibly receptive” to CASA’s initiatives.
“Advocacy of this nature is difficult to determine, but we saw a lot of traction on the in study income ask,” Carter said. “We are looking forward to see how the government will move forward on the issues we presented.”
The Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), which Carleton is a member of, took to Parliament Hill the same week to talk about other issues in post-secondary financial aid, including aid for graduate students and the increase of non-repayable grants.
