Select Committee on Finance for the 2027 BC Budget – CCFA Written Submission

Advocating for Public Post-Secondary Education in British Columbia Through Public Investment in Community Education, Arts & Humanities, and Debt-Free Learning

BC’s Greatest Natural Resources are its People. Post-secondary education unlocks their potential.

British Columbia’s future will not be secured by austerity, instability, or asking communities to do more with less. It will be secured by investing in the people who live, learn, work, care, teach, build, heal, create, and lead in every region of the province. Public post-secondary education is one of the strongest tools the government has to make that investment real.

Colleges, institutes, and universities are not optional extras in a modern society. They are public infrastructure. They train health care workers, early childhood educators, tradespeople, technicians, counsellors, engineers, community workers, artists, researchers, business owners, public servants, and teachers. They help people change careers, recover from economic disruption, support their families, and contribute to their communities. They give students the skills to earn a living, as well as the confidence, judgment, relationships, and civic capacity to build a better life.

At Camosun College, faculty see this every day. We teach students who are balancing work, caregiving, rent, debt, family expectations, disability, migration, trauma, and hope. We see students return to school after layoffs, illness, parenthood, or years of being told that education was not for them. We see the power of a public college that is close to home, grounded in community, and connected to real social need. When post-secondary education is properly funded, it becomes a launching pad. When it is underfunded, it becomes another barrier.

This is the sixth year that I have submitted recommendations to the Select Committee on Finance for the BC Budget on behalf of the CCFA. The format is restricted to just three topics and a limited number of words to explain each recommendation. These submissions become part of the government of BC’s public records. Our recommendations consistently focus on students and promote community well-being. We are not making specific recommendations for our College’s funding; we are making general recommendations for the entire BC Budget.

Recommendation 1 (300 characters max)

Stabilize public post-secondary education institutions through secure operating grants, not reliance on volatile market factors like tuition revenue, private industry investment, or federal defence spending.

Recommendation 1 Explanation (2000 characters max)

Public colleges, institutes, and universities are not private businesses. They are public institutions with a public mandate: to educate people, support communities, advance knowledge, and prepare BC for the future. When core programs and services depend too heavily on tuition revenue, especially international tuition revenue, institutions are exposed to forces outside their control. Federal immigration changes, global instability, recruitment fluctuations, and affordability pressures can quickly become local crises. Students lose courses, programs, and supports. Faculty and staff lose jobs. Communities lose training pathways and public capacity.

The same concern applies to private industry investment and defence-linked funding. Partnerships may have a place, but they cannot become substitutes for public responsibility. When institutions are pushed to chase private or militarized funding streams, educational priorities can become distorted by market demand, corporate interests, or federal procurement agendas rather than community need. BC needs post-secondary institutions that can plan around health care, climate adaptation, public services, Indigenous reconciliation, democratic participation, trades, arts, humanities, and regional resilience. Those priorities require stable public funding, not dependence on whichever sector is profitable or politically favoured at a given moment.

BC’s greatest natural resource is its people. Post-secondary education unlocks their potential, but only when institutions have the stability to provide accessible, high-quality, community-rooted education. A funding model built on volatility squanders that potential. It forces short-term, reactionary decisions, undermines working and learning conditions, and narrows education to what can generate revenue quickly.

Budget 2027 should increase base operating grants to public post-secondary institutions, reduce reliance on tuition and private revenue, and ensure that funding reflects the full public value of education. Stable public funding is not simply institutional support. It is an investment in BC’s workforce, communities, democracy, and long-term resilience.

Recommendation 2 (300 characters max)

Increase funding for the arts, humanities, social sciences, and community-rooted education as a long-term cost-prevention measure.

Recommendation 2 Explanation (2000 characters max)

The Provincial Budget tells the citizens of BC what our leaders value; we think it should be us. When public institutions are forced to rely on labour market opinions using narrow workforce metrics and short-term revenue generation, programs that serve broad public purposes become especially vulnerable. Arts, humanities, social sciences, Indigenous studies, civic education, and community-based programs are often treated as less urgent because their value is harder to reduce to immediate labour-market outputs. That is a mistake.

These programs build the human capacities that keep communities functioning: critical thinking, communication, ethical reasoning, cultural understanding, historical knowledge, conflict resolution, creativity, public participation, and democratic literacy. They prepare people not only for employment, but for citizenship, care work, leadership, public service, and community life. These are the skills needed in health care, education, social services, justice, climate adaptation, governance, and workplaces dealing with complex human realities.

Underfunding these areas does not save money. It shifts costs downstream. When communities lose access to local, human-centred education, BC pays later through weaker civic trust, poorer public communication, increased polarization, preventable conflict, reduced cultural capacity, and fewer pathways for people who do not enter post-secondary through narrow career programs. Community-rooted education can be an early intervention: it connects people to learning, builds confidence, strengthens belonging, and creates pathways into further education and service.

British Columbians value and depend on public post-secondary education as a form of public infrastructure. That infrastructure must include more than job training. A resilient province needs people who can think critically, understand systems, work across differences, support reconciliation, respond to misinformation, and make careful decisions in uncertain times.

Budget 2027 should provide dedicated, stable funding to protect and expand arts, humanities, social sciences, Indigenous studies, and community-based education across BC’s colleges, institutes, and universities. BC’s greatest natural resource is its people. These programs help people become thoughtful, capable, connected, and ready to serve their communities.

Recommendation 3 (300 characters max)

Eliminate provincial student loan debt and replace it with an expanded grant-based system. Prioritize access for low-income, rural, and Indigenous students. Debt-free education supports local job retention, economic mobility, and equity across British Columbia.

Recommendation 3 Explanation (2000 characters max)

BC’s greatest natural resource is its people. Post-secondary education unlocks their potential. But when access to education depends on a student’s ability to take on debt, that potential is restricted before it has a chance to grow. For too many students, the cost of tuition, housing, transportation, food, books, technology, and lost wages determines whether they can study, what program they can choose, how many hours they must work, and whether they can complete their education at all.

Student debt is not only a personal burden. It is a public policy problem with long-term consequences for communities and the economy. Debt shapes where graduates can live, what jobs they can accept, whether they can return to rural or remote communities, and whether they can enter lower-paid but urgently needed public service fields. It delays family stability, limits participation in local economies, and makes education feel like a personal risk instead of a public good.

A grant-based system would recognize that students are not asking for charity. They are preparing to contribute to BC’s future. Low-income students should not have to mortgage their futures to access opportunity. Rural students should not be priced out because they must travel or relocate. Indigenous students should have access to education as part of BC’s responsibility to address colonial barriers, support self-determination, and strengthen community capacity.

Debt-free education also supports local job retention. When students can train without overwhelming debt, they are more able to stay in or return to their communities as health care workers, educators, tradespeople, social service workers, artists, technicians, small business owners, and public servants. This is especially important in regions already struggling with workforce shortages.

Budget 2027 should replace provincial student loans with needs-based grants, expand support for living costs, and set a clear path toward debt-free public post-secondary education. Investing in students is investing in BC’s people, communities, and shared future.

We deserve better.

BC’s greatest natural resource is its people. Post-secondary education unlocks their potential.

BC devotes only about 3.6% of its direct provincial budget to the Ministry responsible for post-secondary education. For about $53 per British Columbian per year, BC could close the annual post-secondary funding shortfall and protect the public colleges, institutes, and universities that train, support, and strengthen our communities. BC could replace provincial student loans with grants for about $437 million per year, roughly $77 per person annually. And for roughly $18 to $26 per British Columbian per year, BC could create a dedicated fund to protect and expand arts, humanities, social sciences, Indigenous studies, and community-rooted education, helping prevent the deeper long-term costs of weakened civic capacity, reduced local access, and diminished community resilience.

I think we’re worth it, don’t you?

Read more about it:

Rebuilding post-secondary education as public infrastructure in BC