With students heading back to school, young communists ask what happened to the Liberals’ Student Service Grant?

Central Executive Committee, September 2020

The $900 million Canada Student Service Grant (CSSG) was announced as part of the $9 billion emergency benefit package for students announced in May. As of yet, not a single student has received a single dollar from the CSSG. 

The CSSG has been critiqued by the bourgeois press and bourgeois political parties for being a crony deal for Prime Minister Trudeau and former Finance Minister Morneau’s families and political allies. Little has been written about the actual content of the program, however, the CSSG offered students a maximum grant of $5000 in exchange for 500 hours of service. This amount is below the minimum wage and cost of living, and less than the amount for full-time tuition for the majority of post secondary students. The CSSG program was announced when young workers and students were in desperate positions and potentially willing to take below minimum wage, as the unemployment rate for people under 25 was nearly 30% and the rate for returning students was nearing 40%. We reject the proposal by NDP whip Rachel Blaney which would turn over the $900 million to private businesses as part of the Liberals wage subsidy program that has failed the working class and lined the pockets of the ruling class. This failed Liberal exploitation project is proof as to why young workers need a federal Workers’ Bill of Rights and students need a federal Right to Education Act akin to the Canada Health Act to enforce gains made by students and workers and guarantee decent work and quality education for all. 

The Canada Emergency Student Benefit (CESB) program is now coming to a close just as post-secondary instruction begins in the fall semester. We have made our position as students and young workers clear: the CESB was not enough to cover the cost of living or full-time tuition for the vast majority of students. Furthermore, this $9 billion program proves that the long-standing narrative of federal governments that education funding is an exclusively provincial matter is false. The total amount of grants from this benefit could have easily been distributed in a more just and effective way through the establishment of universal programs. This $9 billion in short term emergency benefits was only $1 billion short of the annual cost of completely removing tuition fees and fully funding a public post-secondary education system for all post-secondary students in Canada, and enforcing crown education treaty obligations to First Nations. 

It is necessary for students to take a leadership role in the fight for universal public social services. Many workers in the post-secondary industry have been laid off or furloughed, and this loss of employment for workers is also a loss of services for students. Too many students will be forced to withdraw from their studies this fall for purely financial reasons. Thus, it is now more than ever time to fight for universal, completely publicly-funded quality education.