Post-secondary education (PSE) is primarily a provincial responsibility; however, the federal government has a considerable amount of direct and indirect influence on PSE in Ontario and across the country. This is why many student unions have opted to join the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA). CASA is an alliance of student associations from across Canada which promotes the interests of post-secondary students to the federal government. Most of the student associations in Ontario that are a part of OUSA are also a part of CASA.
This year I was elected to represent Ontario on the regional board of CASA. I was further elected by the regional board as the secretary of CASA. I will be acting as the voice of Ontario on this board and ensuring that OUSA and CASA continue to have a healthy relationship over the next year. The upcoming year will be a very important year for OUSA-CASA relations especially with the idea of a formal tie between the two organizations looming in the air.
OUSA and CASA have traditionally had a great relationship. For many years CASA and OUSA have been part of a larger partnership of provincial student alliances from across Canada which come together once a year to share ideas and find synergies in promoting student interests to the federal or provincial governments. This has been a very fruitful relationship for all of the student alliances involved, especially when it comes to sharing best practices on how to improve our provincial student alliances to better promote the interests of students across the country.
Last year OUSA and CASA adopted the principles of an open letter that suggested the idea of making our loose partnership between provincial student alliances into a formal partnership that directly ties these provincial alliances with CASA. This would mean that CASA would no longer be driven by individual students’ unions from all over Canada but would instead be driven by provincial student alliances in a federated structure.
OUSA’s counterparts in other provinces have agreed to entertain the idea of a federated structure of CASA. The partnership will be coming together in Ottawa between August 16th and 17th in their first meeting on the topic to discuss the feasibility of this partnership idea.
Whatever comes out of this year’s partners conference, OUSA and CASA will continue to have strong ties and work together to promote the interests of students both at the federal and provincial levels of government.
Daud Grewal
VP University Affairs
Brock University Students’ Union
