CFS Information

What is the Canadian Federation of Students?
The Canadian Federation of Students was formed in 1981 to provide students with an effective and united voice, provincially and nationally. Students recognised that to be truly effective in representing their collective interests to the federal and provincial governments, it is vital to unite under one banner.

Today, the Federation is comprised of more than 400,000 students from over 60 university and college students’ associations across Canada.

Visit The Ontario Chapter of Canadian Federation of Students

Founding Principles

The Federation was founded with the following aims and objectives:

To organise students on a democratic, co-operative basis in advancing our own interests and in advancing the interests of our community;
To provide a common framework within which students can communicate, exchange information, and share experience, skill and ideas;
To ensure the effective use and distribution of the resources of the student movement, while maintaining a balanced growth and development of student organisations that respond to students’ needs and desires;
To bring students together to discuss and to achieve necessary educational, administrative or legislative change wherever decision-making affects students;
To facilitate co-operation among students in organising services that supplement our academic experience, provide for our human needs and which develop a sense of community with our peers and other members of society;
To articulate the real desire of students to fulfil the duties, and be accorded the rights of citizens in our society and in the international community;
To achieve our ultimate goal - a system of post-secondary education that is accessible to all, which is of high quality, which is nationally planned, which recognises the legitimacy of student representation and the validity of student rights, and whose role in society is clearly recognised and appreciated.

The Federation, now in its twentieth year, remains committed to these aims and objectives.

Achieving Goals

For a student organisation to be successful at influencing government policy it must produce quality research, develop relationships with government, and demonstrate that there is public support for its issues.

Research:Thorough, accurate and in-depth research is required to justify any proposal presented to government. The Canadian Federation of Students employs four full-time researchers across Canada who study and prepare analyses of government policies and trends within post-secondary education, and develop alternatives to government policy. The Federation’s work on discrediting the ten-year prohibition on student loan bankruptcies is recognised as having set the standard for research on the issue.

Lobbying: The primary purpose of the Federation is to represent students’ issues and concerns to government. Regular contact with elected and non-elected officials and bureaucrats is how the Canadian Federation of Students’ message is conveyed to government.

In Canada, most post-secondary education financing is provided by the federal government but is administered exclusively at the provincial level. Government policies and priorities determine the quality and accessibility of post-secondary education in Canada. Thus, the Federation employs a government relations strategy that addresses both federal and provincial representatives.

Over the years, the Federation has become a strong presence on Parliament Hill and in provincial legislatures across Canada. Federation representatives meet regularly with federal MPs, other government officials and representatives from all political parties in Ottawa and at the provincial level. In addition, the Federation is frequently invited to make presentations to government committees and task forces.

Action: Of course, regular meetings with government and the very best research will have little impact unless the government believes a message has widespread support. The Federation demonstrates this support through the active participation of its members and the general public in activities ranging from petition drives to mass mobilisations. These campaigns raise public awareness of the issues, and correspondingly affect the decisions and policies of government.

Strength in Numbers
No individual students’ association, no matter how big or active, has the resources or the political clout to effectively influence the post-secondary education policies of the provincial and federal governments on its own. At best, an individual students’ association could have an impact on a few federal electoral ridings. Governments ignore groups that pose no political threat to them. It is also much more cost effective for a large number of students’ associations to pool their resources and work in partnership than for each to undertake this work on its own.

The Federation enables students’ unions to collectively pool their resources to provide student owned and operated services such as Travel CUTS, the International Student Identity Card, the Studentsaver Card, the Student Work Abroad Program (SWAP), and the National Student Health Network