Mulcair plan for interest-free loans, grants will benefit Sault students
NDP Candidate Skip Morrison visited with students at Algoma University today to hear from them about their concerns and to present the NDP’s plan for Post Secondary Education
“We can make college and university more affordable. The federal government needs to do its part,” said Morrison.
“Half a million Canadians receive Canada Student Loans every year. Since Stephen Harper took office, the level of student debt has risen by 30% with the average graduate now expecting to owe more than $26,000 as they try to start a career and maybe even a family.”
Instead of making life more affordable for students, the Conservative government had to write off $838 million in unrecoverable student loans. That’s tens of thousands of cases in the last four years alone while college and university tuition climb to record levels.
A Tom Mulcair NDP government will:
• Invest $250 million in additional federal student grants over four years, with an emphasis on helping students who need it most, creating as many as 50,000 new grants;
• Immediately begin phasing out interest on federal student loans, eliminating it completely by Year 7 and saving the average student $4,000; and
• Work with the provinces and territories to make post-secondary education more affordable, accessible, and inclusive.
“Only the NDP has a plan to address the affordability crisis in post-secondary education,” said Morrison. “Everyone who holds a federal student loan will benefit from our plan and by 2019, interest payments on student loans will be cut in half.”
The Green Party has a better plan for students:
SLASH CANADA’S STUDENT DEBT TODAY, AND ABOLISH TUITION FEES FOR
COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY EDUCATION FOR STUDENTS AND THEIR FAMILIES
It’s time to break the status quo on education in
Canada and abolish tuition fees for college, university
and skills training programs. Whether Germany,
Austria, Norway, Sweden, or Finland, many of the
world’s most successful economies have proven that
expanding the public education system to include
post-secondary increases prosperity, equality,
productivity, and economic competitiveness.
We will start investing in Canada’s future by
abolishing tuition fees for students without adequate
financial means, including removing the inadequate
2% annual cap on increased funding for post
secondary education for all First Nations and Inuit
students. Through consultation and collaboration
with provincial governments and universities and
colleges, by 2020 we will abolish tuition fees for
post-secondary education and skills training for
Canadians, guaranteeing that income is never a
barrier for qualified students. It is widely recognized
that Canada’s success depends on an educated
population, yet we burden youth with tens of
thousands of dollars in student debt.
As our plan to abolish tuition fees is being phased
in, we will invest in the success of current students,
jumpstart the Canadian economy, and give our
graduates a hand-up by implementing a debtforgiveness
program. Our plan will eliminate any
existing or future student federal debt above
$10,000. We will abolish charging interest on new
student loans and will increase available funding
for bursaries.
It is unacceptable to the Green Party, and should
be unacceptable to every Canadian, that the
unemployment rate among Canadian youth is
twice the national average. The actual youth
unemployment rate is likely much higher as many
young people have given up on finding that first
job and are no longer counted.
Investment in Canadian skills, training, and education
is a proven means to create real jobs, and is the
backbone of Canada’s future as a sustainability
superpower. But for many young people just getting
out of school, they face a Catch-22. They cannot
get hired in new jobs because they lack experience.
But unless they get that first job, they’ll never have
experience. Greens will create a national Community
and Environment Service Corps, which will provide
$1 billion/year to municipalities to hire Canadian
youth to do work that needs to be done.
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