Thank you, Mr. Chair.
To our witnesses, good morning and thank you for being here.
I represent the riding of Kelowna—Lake Country in the Okanagan, where we have UBC Okanagan and Okanagan College, so I appreciate the support that our students provide for our community and our country.
I have just a couple of quick questions for Mr. Champagne.
As far as the economic action plan goes, it's looking forward as a budget and working with our students. It talks about making student loans work for families. I'm wondering if you could comment on the three initiatives that are being proposed as we move forward over the next few years.
They include providing $119 million over four years, starting in 2016-17, to reduce the expected parental contribution under the Canada student loans program needs assessment process. There are also proposals to provide $116 million over four years to eliminate in-study student income from the Canada student loans program needs assessment process. Also, with regard to expanding the eligibility for Canada student grants, the budget is proposing to provide $184 million over four years to expand eligibility for Canada student grants to students in short-duration programs.
Could you comment on those three initiatives as we move forward to help our students across Canada?