I think some of the issues before you in our brief speak to some of the key areas. The challenge we have with the student loan system that exists now in both Canada and Quebec is that it's a system designed for the sixties, but is now operative in the 21st century. So we tinker and tinker to the point where it becomes skewed. So I think it's important that we find a way to sit down—and this might in fact be an integral part of the pan-Canadian workforce strategy we talked about earlier—and find ways to look at that model with certain guiding principles, such as universality, portability, simplicity and rationality.
But the thing that concerns us the most, of course, is the student debt that's being accumulated and the impact it is going to have on the next generation. We know that students are putting off getting married—although that's à la mode these days anyway—and putting off starting their families and buying their first homes. All of this is impacting very significantly.
Interestingly enough, when you do the studies across the country, you notice that in Quebec, for instance, where the CÉGEP system is tuition fee, the problems are exactly the same, because of all of the inherent costs around post-secondary education. So you can just imagine that in areas of special needs and other areas this standing committee is looking at, the challenge is even much more demanding. That's why for us the earlier question by the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation is a very urgent one.
The more we can move to grants and a system of grants, the more likely we're going to be able to reduce some of that burden.