Some experts are concerned that post-secondary students will have access to less money through the Canada Student Grant (CSG), based on a line item buried in Budget 2025.
“School’s going to suck for more students,” said Alex Usher, president of Higher Education Strategy Associates (HESA), a consulting firm that analyzed the budget’s effect on post-secondary education.
The CSG is a grant for students from low- and middle-income families. All students are automatically assessed for the grant when applying for provincial or territorial student aid.
Usher said he discovered no additional money set aside in future years for the CSG. The government had been setting aside extra funding since 2020 to raise CSG payments from $3,000 to at least $4,200.
CBC asked Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) whether the grant would return to $3,000. A spokesperson wrote in an email that “further details will be communicated in due course.”
In the 2023-2024 academic year, 586,000 full-time students received $2.6 billion through the CSG. There were 1.9 million full-time equivalent enrolments across Canada that year, according to HESA.
Usher said the apparent reduction will lead to higher debt among students who have been relying on the grants.
Usher explained that back in 2019, eligible full-time students could receive a maximum of $3,000 annually from the CSG. During the 2019 election, the Liberals promised to increase payments to $4,200 per year.
Amid the early COVID-19 lockdowns in April 2020, the government decided to raise the grant to up to $6,000 annually. That level of funding was renewed until July 2023.
In the 2023 budget, payments were reduced to $4,200, and the 2024 budget maintained that level for another year.
Budget 2025 contains a line item showing the government is providing $1.2 billion for the current fiscal year, but small reductions each subsequent year until 2030.
Usher said that tells him the CSG will drop again, but he wasn’t confident in that assessment because he found the entire budget was “sloppily put together.”
“I can’t figure out if it’s because the budget table is a [$1-billion] mistake … or if it’s because they’re too cowardly to actually say straight up that’s what they’re doing,” he said.
Other experts told CBC by email that they had also interpreted the budget to mean the CSG would be decreased.
In its pre-budget submission this year, the Canadian Association of University Teachers recommended raising the maximum CSG payment to $7,000.
Jack Coen, president of the University of Ottawa Students’ Union (UOSU), said he was stunned by how deeply buried the change was.
“If they want to talk about how this is a sacrifice budget, that’s understandable given the circumstances, but to not let young Canadians know what they’re sacrificing — I feel it’s a little disingenuous,” he said.
Other budget items that could affect post-secondary institutions and students include a summer jobs program and funding to fill Canada Research Chair positions.
Sean Joe-Ezigbo, president of the Carleton University Students’ Association, said students appreciate the other measures in the budget, but a possible grant cut is a “point of frustration” when they’re already facing rising rates of youth unemployment and food insecurity.
“Having support in one place and then taking it away in another place doesn’t really help, right?” he said. “[The] students that rely on this are expecting this to come through so that they can have a good, solid education without having to take on a million extra tasks.”
Usher doesn’t believe the lower grants will necessarily deter students from pursuing post-secondary education, but worries they’ll end up worse off once they graduate.
“It means higher debt,” he said.
Parliament is expected to vote on the budget Monday.
