October 4, 2010 – Danielle Smith Advanced Education speaking notes – Check Against Delivery

Thank you very much.

Before I begin I’d like to thank the U of C Wildrose club – particularly James Jeffrey and Kathryn Marshall
– for organizing today’s event, and of course all of you for showing up here today.

Being back at the University of Calgary reminds me how much I enjoyed my time here as a student and
how personally indebted I am to the education I received at the U of C.

It also reminds me how much potential lies in post-secondary institutions across Alberta.

We have some of the best campuses, some of the most qualified instructors and some of the most
unique and exciting research opportunities anywhere in the world.

But accessibility is where we fall short.

Alberta continues to attract more and more top-notch faculty and world-class research, but less and
fewer students are getting access to them.

Our post-secondary education system was designed to be open and accessible. As opposed to the
American model, ours was to be inclusionary – a system that granted those seeking knowledge and
know-how the very best opportunities to achieve their goals.

Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case in Alberta over the last few years.

I know last week was the deadline for tuition payment, and I also know what an increasingly
burdensome day that has become.

Inflated tuition fees have priced thousands of would-be students out of pursuing their post-secondary
aspirations and saddled even more with crippling debt loads upon graduation.

Student loans are increasingly harder to come by – and even if you qualify, they often aren’t enough to
allow students to give their studies the time and effort they require.

And budget-crunched institutions are decreasing – not increasing – available spaces in the streams of
study and professional training Alberta needs the most.

Fortunately, the Wildrose Alliance has a plan to increase affordability and accessibility in order to
properly train students for Alberta’s ever-changing workforce.

We will restore the tuition hike cap based on the rate of inflation and crack down on post-secondary
institutions charging non-instructional fees. Alberta institutions charged the highest non-instructional
fees of any province last year – an average of $818 a student.

These vague and unfair levies are essentially an additional tax for students who are barely able to handle
tuition fees as it is.

We will forgive student loans for graduates who choose to build their careers in Alberta.
 October 4, 2010 – Danielle Smith Advanced Education speaking notes – Check Against Delivery

We can’t continue to send graduates into entry-level positions with six-figure debt loads. Let’s ease up
on those who choose Alberta so they can get on with their lives and become productive contributors to
the Alberta economy.

We will also eliminate parental income as a determining factor in student loan applications. We know
what a frustrating barrier this can sometimes be and we believe it’s unfair and simplistic to base a
student’s loan chances on somebody else’s income.

But as you all know, getting an education on credit is never ideal. Instead of starting students out at the
bottom of a mountain of debt, we want to move them as far up that mountain as possible.

That’s why we will change tax rules to make it more attractive for private individuals and businesses to
start up endowment funds. Endowment bursaries and grants aren’t paid by the taxpayer or by the
student and they often go to support the type of groundbreaking research and development Alberta has
become known for.

Post-secondary research in Alberta has resulted in phenomenal advances in cancer treatments,

nanotechnology, environmental science and agriculture. It’s imperative that we forge ahead as the
world leaders in research that we have become.

However, if we’re going to pave the way for more private sector involvement in post-secondary
education, we’ve got to make sure schools are capable of handling the increase in student activity.

Post-secondary schools did not escape the recession that swept across Alberta over the last couple of
years. As their budgets became leaner, their spaces became fewer and fewer students were permitted
to walk these halls and sit in these classrooms.

A Wildrose government would take a page out of the public system playbook by sending a good chunk
of government funding directly to students and allowing it follow them wherever they choose to go.

This would have the effect of adequately funding the schools and the programs that are in the highest
demand while at the same time creating competition between schools to offer those programs at
reasonable rates.

We have plans for other improvements as well.

Internet-based learning technologies have the potential to open up thousands of new post-secondary
spaces without spending unnecessary billions on more traditional teaching methods that grow more
outdated each day.

We want better and faster credit transfer procedures for students who want to shift their educational
focus. We want to give trades students the option of a verbal exam to obtain their final certification.
And we want to compensate Alberta taxpayers by instituting a royalty structure for commercialized
patents and other intellectual property that arise from government-funded research.
 October 4, 2010 – Danielle Smith Advanced Education speaking notes – Check Against Delivery

These are just a few of our ideas to improve a post-secondary education system that has become yet
another hallmark of waste and inefficiency of this government.

Successive Progressive Conservative governments – including the current one – have poured billions
upon billions of dollars into the system, and with what to show for it?

Your tuition is still too high, your debt loads are still too heavy, and not enough of you get into the
programs you want and the jobs Alberta needs.

This has to change.

I think Alberta can lead the world through this decade and in the ones to come, but we aren’t going to
do it by bombarding our students with exorbitant fees and then graduating them with a half a lifetime’s
worth of debt.

And the only thing we’ll lead the world in is student dropout rates if we don’t properly equip schools to
support students with the resources and amenities they need.

The Wildrose plan will make post-secondary education more affordable. It will lighten the load of
student debt. And it will empower colleges, universities and trade schools to dispense with arbitrary
course limits and offer the programs students want most.

Our whole policy is now available on our website – www.wildrosealliancecaucus.ca – and I hope you’ll
take a look.

Thank you.