Victoria NDP MP Laurel Collins has sponsored a parliamentary e-petition that calls on the Canadian government to increase supports for students in light of COVID-19.
The petition, signed by 9,580 people, asks that the government uses the remaining funds from the $9 billion in aid allocated for the Canada Student Services Grant that was originally going to go to WE Charity before that agreement fell apart in scandal. It also asks that new graduates be included in employment insurance and the Canada Recovery Benefit program.
Also on the list of requests on the e-petition is that the government extends the moratorium on student loan interest and payments until May 1, 2021, with potential for further extensions. It’s also asking that the government expands the Canada Student Services Grant, returns to 50-50 cost sharing with provinces and territories, and increases funding for post-secondary institutions.
Collins, who has been nominated to run again as the Victoria NDP candidate in the next federal election, calls the federal government’s approach to student loan payments “woefully inadequate.”
“We need to absolutely, immediately, end all interest on student loans for good,” says Collins. “Not just for the pandemic. We have to have a serious conversation about the high cost of tuition.”
Collins says that costs associated with post-secondary are getting so high that many students—39 percent across Canada, according to background information included in the petition—are struggling with necessities like food security.
“We were already seeing these challenges pre-pandemic,” says Collins. “I was an instructor at the University of Victoria, and I had students come to me talking about how they were trying to balance two or three jobs while in full-time studies, how the cost of rent and food and tuition were so much that they—great students, with such potential—either were having to switch universities or take time off because they couldn’t afford the high cost of living here, along with the high cost of food and the high cost of tuition.”
Having lower-income students excluded from post-secondary simply so the government can make money of the backs of these students is totally unacceptable, says Collins.
“We are losing bright students because of the lack of support; I also think about students who are graduating with really unprecedented debt,” she says.
Coming out of school owing sometimes well over $40,000 changes the choices students make and limits their opportunities, says Collins. The pandemic has exacerbated already dire circumstances, she says.
“It also means that students that come from low-income families pay thousands of dollars more in interest over the course of their loan,” she says. “Why are we charging lower-income students more to go to university?”
Collins points out that the WE Charity scandal has almost been forgotten about because of the pandemic.
“Justin Trudeau and the Liberal government moved so quickly to give close to a billion-dollar contract to their friends at WE Charity, and then when they got caught in the scandal, instead of just re-allocating that $900 million to supports for students, we’re just left wondering, where’s that money going?” she says. “Why not put that into non-repayable grants?”
The petition will be presented in Parliament this week, and the government will have 45 calendar days to respond to it.