Thank you, Mr. Chair.
We are resigned to this when our banks and credit unions are charging the interest. However, it is more difficult to accept that governments are charging their fellow citizens interest.
That is the confirmation that the government has given us today, from the lips of Mr. Sorbara. The government is not at all embarrassed to go looking for billions of dollars in students’ pockets. The money goes directly into the consolidated fund and is used to finance all kinds of other measures. Basically, this is a revenue stream for the Government of Canada.
I am a little disappointed that we still lack ambition in this area, exactly as I was saying yesterday about other areas. The government has no ambition and takes only small steps forward, when it could do much more by leaving the money in the pockets of former students who have sacrificed a lot and borrowed money from their government. We are taking billions of dollars in interest right out of their pockets today. It is not the banks demanding that interest, it is the Government of Canada.