Statement by CICan President and CEO Pari Johnston on Budget 2025:
I commend Budget 2025’s ambitions to build a confident, secure, and resilient country by investing in nation-building and defence readiness. In everything they do, our 127 members from coast to coast to coast drive lasting impact for Canadian communities and for Canada – especially during once-in-a-generation times of national consequence like these.
But the Budget misses the opportunity to fully reflect the community and nation-building role of public colleges and invest in ways that ensure regional economies are firing on all cylinders. This is especially important given where most of the projects of national importance will be built and where tariff-affected communities are in serious economic transition.
Canada’s public colleges, institutes, CEGEPS, polytechnics and Indigenous institutes of education are vital to realizing the priorities set out in this Budget – to build boldly and with strategy and ambition, to expand capacity in housing and healthcare where Canadians need it most, to help businesses harness AI and new technologies to be more productive, and to deliver local and national training solutions for the Canada’s defence needs.
As the most accessible postsecondary institutions in the country, we welcome Budget 2025’s investments in a new Build Communities Strong Fund with a dedicated stream of infrastructure funding for colleges for such priorities as new trades facilities, as CICan called for in our pre-budget submission. Building trades careers for thousands of new workers will require the public training infrastructure to support them.
And, building on the strengths of our 60-member strong CICan College Defence Training and Innovation Network, we are critical partners to support major new investments in defence personnel, BOREALIS, and the new Defense Industrial Strategy.
Behind every major nation-building initiative from housing and healthcare to defence is a skilled, agile, and innovative workforce – one that includes Canada’s students and young people as well as international students and newcomers integrating into Canadian workplaces. For this reason, we also welcome renewed investments in the Student Work Placement Program that will support more youth to become the builders, makers, caregivers, first responders, innovators, and job creators that Canadians depend on.
While Budget 2025 acknowledges the importance of international research talent in building a prosperous Canada, it does not recognize the core role college-educated international students play as skilled workers, innovators and entrepreneurs in Canada’s diverse regions.
Ninety-five percent of Canadians live within 50 km of a Canadian college. That means in every corner of the country, particularly in rural, remote, and resource-intensive communities where skilled labour shortages are most acute, and populations are aging, they are anchor institutions in a time of precarity.
The initial details released today on the immigration levels plan point to another set of potentially significant reductions that have left institutions and communities – especially rural and linguistic minority communities – reeling. We eagerly await the release of the levels plan and hope our concerns are misplaced. We continue to urge that the program be guided by the principles of predictability, stability, integrity, and transparency.
At this moment of generational shift with urgent needs to adapt to new technologies like AI, deploy talent and a skilled workforce in new ways, and invest in projects that define a nation, CICan urges the Government of Canada to leverage the full potential of our country’s pan-Canadian network of colleges and institutes to meet its bold goals.
Even as our big challenges require austerity, we express deep concern that Budget 2025 overlooks vital top-up investments in the College and Community Innovation Program. We see this as an unwarranted cut to college applied research that will hurt SMEs across the country.
By not investing in placed-based, partner-driven, and mission-oriented innovation, the government has missed an opportunity to invest in home-grown solutions that translate knowledge into impact on the ground. It is college applied research that helps Canadian businesses transform their operations to be more efficient and competitive, drives solutions to build more homes better and faster, boosts domestic manufacturing, and bolsters dual-use capabilities in AI, cybersecurity, robotics and drone technologies, and makes real differences in the daily lives of Canadians.
Unfortunately, Budget 2025’s lack of funding for the college and institute innovation ecosystem hits where and when Canada needs it most. We must give Canada’s public colleges, institutes, CEGEPs, and polytechnics the resources to fulfil their vital place-based role in building strong and innovative communities within an innovative nation.
Only by investing in the power and place of our institutions will we truly set Canada – and its communities – up for future success.
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About Colleges and Institutes Canada
Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICan) is the national voice of Canada’s dynamic network of public colleges, institutes, CEGEPs, and polytechnics. By convening, connecting and championing the sector, we amplify the value and impact of our members to advance priorities that matter most to Canadians. With more than 95% of Canadians living within 50 km of a member institution, and thanks to its extensive reach around the globe, CICan works to position colleges and institutes as key partners in meeting Canada’s – and the world’s – biggest challenges.
We respectfully acknowledge that CICan’s offices in Ottawa are located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabe Nation.
For more information
Matthew Smith
Director, Communications
Email: msmith@cican.org
Twitter: @CollegeCan