2000-2001 Budget / Budget Speech |
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IV. Investing more in young people and in education
Let me repeat that this is a Budget that looks to the future, a Budget of hope, success and solidarity. It is a Budget that concentrates on the brighter things in life. In February, the Québec Youth Summit drew up some excellent courses of positive action for the future.
At the end of the Summit, the government promised to invest $1 billion of new money into the education networkssector over the next three years. Agreement was also reached on creating a Youth Fund and continuing with the Fonds de lutte contre la pauvreté set up in 1996.
(a) Promoting quality education
This Budget puts into immediate action our promise to invest in education. The education networks will receive large sums for development, namely $200 million in 2000-2001, $300 million the following year and $500 million in every subsequent year.
As my colleague the Minister of Education has said, the universities will be refinanced with the following objectives in mind: accessibility, performance and satisfying the needs of society. A balance will be kept between an essential presence in the regions and the development of major centres of excellence. We are counting on the crucial support of faculty members to make a success of these endeavours.
This Budget goes beyond the commitments made at the Summit, introducing new initiatives involving substantial additional funds. We will begin with $150 million, $100 million of which will go to the universities, $40 million to the school boards and $10 million to the Cegeps, to help them remain financially healthy.
On a more microeconomic scale, we have earmarked $24 million for the modernisation of the hospital run by the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Saint-Hyacinthe, whose accreditation would otherwise be at risk.
(b) Promoting excellence
We also want to encourage young people studying at the master's, the doctoral or the post-doctoral level. To this end, we will put aside $24 million over the next three years to increase the amount of bursaries available to them by 40%.
Along the same lines, but working within the taxation system, we will support the development of a new generation of university researchers. At present, students lose part of their bursaries to income tax. I am announcing today two new measures to protect them from this loss. First of all, we are raising the non-taxable portion of bursaries from $500 to $3 000. Secondly, we are making scholarships granted to university students entirely tax-free.
Young people who invest in high-performance sports are true role models for all young Quebecers. We intend to support their efforts financially. I wish them all the same kind of success as the Mélanie Turgeon's, Nathalie Lambert's, Mélanie Marois', Pierre Harvey's and Dominic Laroche's have known. I am thus announcing today the creation of a tax credit for Québec's 2 000 high-performance athletes. This credit will vary between $1 000 and $4 000 depending on whether the athlete is involved in an individual or a team sport and on whether he or she is classed in the Excellence, the Élite or the Relève level of that sport.
I am also announcing an additional $10 million a year that the Minister for Health will use to encourage involvement in amateur sports.
This Budget also encourages excellence in research and development. It will increase the funds available to Valorisation-Recherche Québec, giving it $120 million to support Québec researchers competing for other grants. My colleagues the Minister of Health and Social Services and the Minister of Education will also make funds available for this purpose.
Furthermore, over the next three years, an additional $40 million will be provided to support research teams through financing funds. Lastly, the Minister of Research, Science and Technology is preparing to table a new science policy later this year, which will be accompanied by the resources required for Québec to remain on the cutting edge of new technology and knowledge.
(c) Promoting initiative
The most immediate need expressed by our young people was, obviously, access to jobs. Fortunately, they were the first to benefit from our strong economic recovery. As a result, they will also be the first to benefit from the budgetary measures supporting job creation. However, we want to help them in a more specific manner.
The most remarkable outcome of the Summit was without a doubt the creation of a $240-million Youth Fund. I would like to express my gratitude to Québec's business community, which will be contributing one half of this amount to the Fund. The government will be paying its half into the Fund this very year. What a wonderful example of Québec solidarity and what a wonderful way to use our budgetary surpluses!
This Budget also sets aside $95 million for other measures to help young people. These measures will be revealed shortly by the Minister of State for Education and Youth whom I congratulate, by the way, for his energy, the thoroughness of his work and his excellent performance at the Summit.
I would like to remind you that, true to our tradition of solidarity, we agreed to maintain the Fonds de lutte contre la pauvreté, which was created at the Summit on the Economy and Employment in the fall of 1996. The Fund will receive $160 million over the next three years.
Two years ago, I announced the creation of a Fonds étudiant solidarité travail du Québec, in cooperation with the FTQ and its Fonds de solidarité. The annual revenues of this fund made it possible to offer close to 400 paid internships to students in 1999 and to help them enter the labour market. With our partners, we have agreed to invest $10 million each to create more student internships.
If this Budget were to be graced with a dedication, it would read, "To Québec's young people". Not only have we stopped burdening our young people with our debts, we are putting powerful resources at their disposal so that they can achieve their life goals more easily than those who went before them. I imagine this is what is called intergenerational solidarity.