Thank you.
I very much appreciate the bill that you've tabled. I think we realize, as you mentioned in the report, that there is a serious problem in Canada and that we have to find ways to assist students who are falling into incredible amounts of debt.
In speaking to some intergovernmental researchers last week who focused on post-secondary education, they mentioned, as you mentioned, the problem that occurred in the nineties when transfers were cut and direct funding assistance was made to parents of students by way of tax credits and so on. I think we've all read The Globe and Mail report mentioning that this has led to an inadequate patchwork that has left students and their parents in a real quandary.
In a way, this proposes to help students at the time they need it. I think we're all aware that there are two ways of helping students. That's through grants, at the time they need them, or reduction of student fees, which is not within our purview, except by way of the transfers that my colleague has already alluded to. You also mentioned that this does not attempt to solve all problems for low-income people.
I have a couple of questions. I'm wondering if you are going to consider some amendments. It seems to me that the bill excludes mature students who have been out of school for more than four years. To me, that seems to be problematic. Many of them I've met in my riding, in my office, would fall in that category, but they would be excluded.
It also excludes middle-income students in some parts of the country. Middle income in one part of the country is not middle income in another given other cost-of-living factors such as housing, as it is in British Columbia. So that's a concern. Through an amendment, there would be ways of phasing the grant system to allow students of middle income to benefit from it at some point. That's a question I have.
I guess the other problem is that it excludes students who are financially independent from their families. If the bill you're proposing, rather than being income-based, were needs-based, as the report you referred to suggested, this might alleviate that problem.
I guess those are three questions. I have a couple of others, but we'll see if I have time.