Thank you.
Mr. Chairman and committee members, I am very pleased to have the opportunity to share with you my ideas on how the government can most effectively help young Canadians as they face the challenge of paying for their post-secondary education.
The rising cost of such education is a given in our society, and too many bright young Canadians with limited financial resources are either increasingly deterred from embarking on university or college studies in the first place or, having graduated, find themselves weighed down by the large student loans they are having to repay.
Caps on tuition fees, increased grants, and scholarship programs such as the millennium fund have not solved, and will not solve, this problem. As a result, these bright young Canadians are prevented from making full productive use of their skills and talents, and Canada loses much of the contribution they would have made to the country.
My approach provides a social safety net for those undertaking post-secondary programs. At the same time, it ends the heavy government costs inherent in traditional student aid programs.
The plan uses a group life insurance framework called the student insurance trust, or the SIT. It provides a platform enabling the government to do three important things: eliminate the losses it currently sustains as a result of irretrievably defaulted loans; extend a fair and cost-effective form of relief to defaulting ex-students with no prospects of repaying their loans; and generate substantial revenues over the long term for recovery of costs of the Canada student loans program and potentially investment in other government initiatives. In addition, the SIT can be easily structured to recover the costs of other programs and activities deemed strategic to Canada's well-being now and in the future.
As Canadian citizens reach the age of 24 to 27, they will be allowed, if they want, to participate in an insurance trust, the purpose of which is to throw a generational lifeline to debtors who cannot pay their bills, or to spur economic development in areas that sorely need developing. There are no fees or premiums to pay by Canadian citizens who decide to participate, and the insurance is placed in a random way, based on geographical, actuarial, and insurable interests. In return, these participating citizens will have a say in solving the economic and social problems that are a threat to the quality of life of not just Canadians but also the rest of the world.
This plan is about people helping other people, and the student insurance trust will allow the government to act as a facilitator of good deeds between generations, from municipal pollution problems tied up in endless litigation to third-world debt restructuring on the multilateral level, so that these poor countries can free up more money to spend on education and health care; to help provide clean water to all Canadians and to begin tackling the environmental problems in the world's oceans; to help solve poverty and hunger within our own borders and to help provide similar relief to those who need it around the world; to help solve the shortage of family doctors and other medical services so that Canadians can receive medical help in a timely way; to help spur the development of alternative energy that pollutes less; or to protect Canadian cultural and historical treasures using the cost-recovery provision.
Today l'm presenting a program development proposal. It is presented as a “learning by doing” opportunity for the government. l would be pleased to work with the Canadian government and the Canadian life insurance industry in order to take the SIT concept to the next level.
Canada's success in the world economy and our current prosperity owes much to hard-working and creative Canadians, but our future depends on forward-looking investments in education, infrastructure, and economic activity.
Mr. Chair, if possible, l would like to dedicate the remainder of my five minutes to addressing questions.
Thank you.