With a general election only a couple of weeks away, Canada’s political parties have different answers to the question of student debt. Candidates for the Westmount Ville-Marie riding weigh in on the issue.
If the Conservatives are elected, they intend to launch the needs-based Canada Student Grants program. The program, which was announced last spring, will replace the Millennium Scholarship, a merit-based grant system put in place under former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. The grant would consist of a monthly payment of $250 for students from low-income families or $100 for those from middle-income background. The Conservatives say the program will reach 245,000 college and undergraduate students, an increase of 100,000 people over current federal grants and debt remission programs.
Even though education is a provincial responsibility, Conservative candidate Guy Dufort said the program would be put in place in a climate of cooperation with the provinces.
“We don’t do anything without being in accord with the province and we do that in every province,” said Dufort.
Dufort also said he wants increased cooperation between the private sector and universities.
“What we want essentially is to favor knowledge-based economy, like Waterloo University did with Research in Motion which led to the creation of the blackberry. This cooperation still operates to this day. The two can benefit and this creates jobs in the knowledge sector – jobs that Canada needs”, said Dufort.
Liberal measures
If the Liberals are elected, the Conservatives’ grant program will not be implemented, but the Liberals have their own needs-based grant program.
“We intend to provide 200,000 needs-based bursaries of up to $3,500 per year . . . and also 100,000 access grants of up to $4,000 per year,” said Liberal candidate Marc Garneau.
The Liberals also intend to guarantee every student a $5,000 student loan regardless of parental income, lower interest rates for students and to extend the grace period on repayment post-grad from six months to two years. The Liberals also plan to make that grace period interest-free.
The Liberals also want to increase support for university-based research by more than 60 per cent, up to $500 million. Even though education is a provincial responsibility, Garneau said federal funding such as this is usually welcomed as a good thing by the provinces.
NDP
The NDP’s Anne Lagacé Dowson also believes in investing in university research. “We are not in favour of giving $50 billion in tax breaks to the oil companies and the banks while we starve university research,” she said.
Furthermore, Lagacé Dowson believes that healthy universities mean a healthy economy.
“We know that a knowledge-based economy is the future. We know in jurisdictions where universities are well-funded the economies thrive, in places like Germany, and now in Ireland for example they’ve dropped tuition fees in the universities,” she said.
Lagacé Dowson thinks that Quebec’s low tuition fees are important for students who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford post-secondary education.
“Quebec has become a magnet for a lot of students across Canada,” she said. “That tuition freeze . . . is actually a great thing because it goes some way to addressing this issue of accessibility. If you keep the fees at a reasonable level then people who would not necessarily be able to consider going to university are suddenly able to consider that option.”
Loan reduction
The Green Party will propose an inventive measure to relieve student debts. The party is proposing a 50 per cent reduction of the outstanding student loan upon graduation. The measure is to be financed from a carbon tax.
“We don’t think students can begin careers with that magnitude of debt,” said Green candidate Claude William Genest.
Calls to the Bloc Quebecois were not returned by press time.
