When I hear about all of the millions of dollars being spent on overseas efforts I can't help but wonder what might happen if we refocused at least a portion of those funds in our own country.
A recent report released out of Ottawa says Canada is failing the grade when it comes to attracting high quality university students to the country from places like China, India and Brazil. We're not only spending money to try to entice these people to come here, but we're forking out added dollars to "study" why current efforts aren't working.
Some scholars are criticizing the Canadian government for cutting a $5 million program that helped to promote Canadian universities in foreign locations. The cut was apparently part of an effort to trim $170 million from the annual Foreign Affairs budget. I say this is fine and dandy - and if we have those funds to spend why don't we direct them to lending a helping hand to Canadian students who are struggling to make ends meet while putting themselves through school.
It's not that welcoming educated people to our country isn't a good thing, but we have brilliant people right here all around us who would love to better their education but are fearful of taking the leap because of the costs. We have people who have taken the leap and are now scraping by as they work their way to "the good life." There are also those who are more than capable of achieving more, but don't give university a second thought because they think it's not a worthwhile dream. "Why bother when I can make more money on the rigs or working in a trade?"
And who can blame them?
How much are we spending on polls and surveys that could be better spent on getting the younger Canadian generation into career fields where we are clearly in need of more experts?
We need doctors. We need nurses. We need quality people working in all sectors of life. Why can't we invest a little more at home to help achieve that? By all means spend a little to do it, but costly surveys and throwing dollars into the ocean isn't the way. Educate our own students and they will have the money to travel to speak for themselves on the merits Canada has to offer. No surveys or government campaigns needed.
