Thank you everyone.  Good morning everyone.  Thank you for joining us here today at Fanshawe College.  It’s great to see so many people here, distinguished guests, students who are enjoying a morning without classes apparently, and of course I’m joined here by my friends and colleagues.

First of all, President Devlin, thank you very much for your welcome and your incredible service to this community and this great institution.  I want to thank Kate and Peter for welcoming me back to London.  I also want to highlight the local MP, the NDP’s Irene Mathyssen, who wasn’t able to be here today but who sends her very, very best as well.

I just wrapped up a really interesting tour for the Centre of Applied Transportation technologies where I got a chance to try my hand working on an engine with some very talented Fanshawe students.  And I found out that as soon as I left the engine, it started up just fine, so…

Their new workspace is very impressive and I have no doubt these students are in great hands here. 

You know, I always enjoy touring schools like this and witnessing the kind of ground-breaking work they’re doing.  I really hammers home the importance of investing in students and supporting Canadian post-secondary institutions.  And I’m really proud that just last month, our government unveiled a budget that will do just that.

A cornerstone element of our plan for students involves an investment of $2 billion in labs and buildings on college and university campuses.  Students need updated facilities and equipment in order to maximize their educational experience.  We know this.  As Canada’s economy shifts toward high-skilled employment, it’s more important than ever to make sure that new grads have the skills and training that they need to meet the demands of the labour market.  It’s a wise investment in the infrastructure that supports our students’ minds. 

To give more young Canadians greater access to good well-paying jobs, our government will invest in training for unemployed and underemployed workers.  We will also develop a new framework to support union-based apprenticeship training and work to expand coop opportunities. 

On top of that, we will invest over $300 million over three years in the Canada summer jobs program to create good jobs for up to an additional 35,000 young Canadians.  Because we all know that education is a significant financial investment, and summer jobs are part of the saving process.

Now more than ever, it’s important that education remains affordable and accessible, and young Canadians shouldn’t be burdened by growing student debt right after graduation.  Our plan is to make post-secondary education more affordable for students from low and middle-income families and we’ll do this by boosting available grant funding by up to $1,000 a year for low and middle-income students.  This move puts more money in the pockets of 360,000 students across the country each and every year.

Furthermore, we will help students pay back their debt after they graduate. We are proud of our plan, which guarantees that students who obtain their college diploma or university degree will not start repaying their student loans until they’re earning at least $25,000 a year. This initiative will help them to start their careers and it will allow them… to breathe a little. And that’s the right thing to do.

I have confidence in the measures we’ve taken to support young Canadians entering the workforce. Visits like the one today remind me that it’s by investing in the education and training of youth that we are making a direct investment in our future.

Investing in young people, investing in the extraordinary institutions like Fanshawe College that support them, making sure that education is more affordable, more accessible, making sure that you don’t have to start repaying your Canada student loans until you’re making $25,000 a year, these are all things that will not just give opportunities to students and young people, but give opportunities to our communities to grow our country’s economy to do better in the coming years.

This is the commitment we made to Canadians in the last election.  This is what we’ve put forward in this budget.  This is how we’re going to continue to work with Canadians to build a brighter future for all in the coming years. 

Thank you very much.