As the voice of colleges and institutes in Ottawa, we joined forces with other organizations this year to advance our members’ priorities, including the need to support upskilling and reskilling in order to help Canadians adjust to changes in the labour market. We worked with Universities Canada to submit proposals on student mobility and market diversification for international recruitment. We also worked with Polytechnics Canada, Tech-Access Canada, la Fédération des cégeps, and l’Association pour la recherche au collégial to highlight the need for stable research support funding for our members’ applied research activities. Finally, we partnered with the Business/Higher Education Roundtable, Co-operative Education and Work-Integrated Learning (CEWIL) Canada and many other stakeholders to promote work-integrated learning as a critical aspect of preparing Canadians for the jobs of tomorrow.

We also worked closely with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and consulted with members on a range of issues with relevance to international students, including the launch and expansion of the Study Direct Stream and biometrics, to ensure that policy and program criteria reflect the interests of our members

These efforts were well received by the federal government, which delivered a very college-friendly budget, on March 19, that was introduced from the get-go as a skills budget.

Budget by the numbers:

• $1.7 billion over five years for the Canada Training Benefit
• $798.2 million over five years to expand the Student Work Placement Program and support 84,000 new work-integrated learning placements per year
• $147.9 million over five years for a new International Education Strategy

We contributed to multiple federal consultations this year, through written submissions or by appearing before committees.

• Pre-budget submission to the Standing Committee on Finance
• Submission to the Special Senate Committee on the Charitable Sector
• Submission to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities for a study on experiential learning
• Joint response to the consultation on the Tri-Agency Research Data Management Policy with Polytechnics Canada
• Submission to the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology for the Statutory Review of the Copyright Act. Our president and CEO also appeared before the committee.
• Appearance before the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food for a study on the use of technology in agriculture.
• Participation in a consultation meeting and written submission to highlight ways that the Canada Foundation for Innovation and other federal funders can best support members in accessing and maintaining leading-edge research infrastructure.
• We provided input to recent changes to IRCC’s Post-Graduate Work Permit that make it easier for students to apply and gain Canadian work experience after their studies.

CICan’s advocacy efforts were supported by a variety of communications activities targeting national and regional media. Over the year, we published op-eds, provided interviews and were featured in media such as the Globe and Mail, CBC, HuffPost, Maclean’s, the Hill Times, the PIE News, Study Travel Magazine, and Le Droit.

We also continued working with Marketzone Productions to publish Education for Employment Magazine, which is distributed with Canadian School Counsellor Magazine and Careering Magazine, as well as the Globe and Mail to produce a special feature on colleges and institutes that focused on the future of work. Additionally, we collaborated with Re$earch Money to create a special feature called Applied Research Comes of Age and a blog on their website. We also offered support to le Droit who created Canada’s first guide to francophone post-secondary institutions.

Throughout the year, we maintained a strong presence on social media, growing our audience considerably across all our platforms.

Growth in social media followership (April 1st 2018 to March 31, 2019):

• Twitter: 25%
• Facebook: 18%
• LinkedIn: 40%
• Overall: 28%

Colleges and institutes across the country will benefit from a strong and passionate voice on the newly created Future Skills Council, as CICan CEO Denise Amyot was named as one of its 15 members.

The Council will advise government and inform the priorities of the new Future Skills Centre which was launched on February 14 by the Honourable Patty Hajdu, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour, along with the Honourable Bill Morneau, Minister of Finance. Operated by a consortium led by Ryerson University, the Future Skills Centre will support projects across Canada and be responsive to regional differences. It will operate at arm’s length from government and has been mandated to develop, test and rigorously measure new approaches to skills assessment and development.

With a federal election planned in the Fall of 2019, CICan’s advocacy work has focused on preparing an election strategy to ensure colleges and institutes are heard by all parties during the campaign.

We created a brand-new committee, gathering college and institute professionals working in communications and government relations, to advise our team and further improve our advocacy efforts. The CICan Government Relations and Communications Advisory Committee met for the first time in December, building on work done by our Government Relations Network in the past two years.