The size of the debt as well as youth unemployment were key priorities identified as more than 7,000 high school students across Canada took part in the Student Budget Consultation.
The initiative is co-ordinated by CIVIX with support from the Government of Canada, Interac and the Canadian Association of Former Parliamentarians. CIVIX is a national registered charity whose mission is to build an active and engaged citizenship among young Canadians.
According to the organization the consultation was aimed at engaging youth in the federal government pre-budget consultation process. More than 400 schools from all provinces and territories participated in the survey, which was done in conjunction with Vox Pop Labs between November 2016 and March 2017. Approximately one per cent of the participation came from Saskatchewan.
A number of findings were released and they include the following:
A total of 66 per cent of Canadian high school students believe debt reduction should be a key priority and 48 per cent want to see the budget balanced at any cost.
Students also would like more investments in environmental protection and post-secondary education.
Forty-four per cent see increases to the affordability and accessibility of post-secondary education as the government’s most important means of helping youth and Canadian families,
Top spending priorities include education (58 per cent), health care (47 per cent) and innovation (45 per cent). Arts and culture was the lowest-ranked priority (32 per cent of students favoured a decrease in funding).
Sixty-eight per cent of students believe there is a youth unemployment problem in Canada. Top remedies include making student debt more manageable (31 per cent) and raising access to quality jobs on graduation (27 per cent).
Despite this, 87 per cent of students are confident they will find and maintain a job they are interested in. Thirty-three per cent are very confident and 54 per cent somewhat confident. Seventy per cent of students are also confident they will be able to easily obtain a summer job.
Despite this, 60 per cent believe it will be more difficult to raise a family and 49 per cent said it will be more difficult to climb the social ladder.
A total of 36 per cent of students want to see greater spending on affordable housing in their communities.
Also, 61 per cent of students believe the gap between those with high incomes and those with low incomes is too large. A majority, 63 per cent, believe wealthier people should pay more in taxes and 53 per cent support raising taxes on big corporations. On that question 14 per cent said they should pay much more while 39 per cent said somewhat more.
Students are also split across Canada on the issue of whether Canada should impose a carbon tax. Of those, 36 percent were in favor, 22 percent opposed and 41 percent were neutral.
