Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to address that question because that is actually one of the aspects of this proposal that bothers me the most.
I know it is good to learn when you are young that when you borrow something you repay it. I remember growing up as a youngster on a farm in Saskatchewan my dad taught me that whenever we borrowed something from a neighbour we always returned it in a condition as good as or better than we borrowed it. That is a good principle but I do not believe it is a good principle to set things up so that young people on graduation have a millstone of debt hanging around their necks.
For example, a young person who has gone through a dental program wants to open a dentist office. He now has to borrow money in order to put up his office, get his equipment. That is true for many different professions, even in my profession of teaching. We need to have computer equipment and things like that, depending on what area we are in.
Some of us on graduation get married. We set up a home. We need to borrow money for the home. We need to borrow money for the downpayment for the car and for the furniture. The first thing you know, you are up to your ears in debt just like this government is up to its ears in debt and you are totally debilitated by it.
I really think it would be much healthier for our whole society if our students could graduate debt free. That really is the very best. It is not that one is a nine and the other is an eight. I really think that one is a 10 and the other is a zero in this as far as my feeling is concerned.
I know that is idealistic but I think it can happen. In a healthy society where students can get a good summer job and are able to live frugally, I believe they should be able to save enough to pay their living expenses. If we as a society, as taxpayers, pay their tuition directly and have them pay it back through their taxes that would be a superior method.
I want to avoid handing them a millstone of debt with their graduation certificate from university.