Canadian faculty members and students are underwhelmed with Tuesday’s bad-times budget, with groups representing both sectors saying the Conservative government has failed to match President Obama’s plans for higher education in the United States.

The budget — which projects a deficit, Canada’s first foray into red ink in a dozen years — designates 30 percent of its new infrastructure money for repairs and building on campuses. But that spending comes with the caveat that the universities and colleges that want funds for projects will have to raise half the money from outside sources, according to a statement from the Canadian Association of University Teachers. The faculty union also says that the budget’s failure to adequately increase research spending means Canada could lose world-class scholars.

In statements on their Web sites, two national student groups, the Canadian Federation of Students and the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, applauded the funds for campus construction and repairs but said they were disappointed in the government’s failure to deal with higher-education access and student aid.

The budget does give some additional money to the agencies that award grants for academic research. Those funds will be used to “temporarily expand the Canada Graduate Scholarships program, which supports Canada’s top graduate students,” the document states. The money will create 500 three-year doctoral scholarships and 1,000 additional master’s scholarships.

The budget also provides money for a world-class facility for the Institute for Quantum Computing and money for the Canadian Space Agency to develop robotics. Community colleges also expect to benefit from the setting up of more retraining programs for people who have lost their jobs. —Karen Birchard