Mr. Speaker, I should like to start by making a very clear statement: young people are very much a priority of the federal government.
In April 1994 the government announced the youth employment and learning strategy to address problems that have held back many young people from participating fully in society. By that I mean high school dropout rates have been high. There has been a lack of
access to post-secondary education, work experience and effective job training.
We have moved on several fronts. We have made serious amendments to the Canada student loans program by increasing loan limits for full time students from $105 to $165 per week and by raising the yearly loan limit for part time students to $4,000. For the very first time we are offering special opportunities grants for women pursuing doctoral studies, for high need students and for persons with disabilities. We have begun to offer the programs because we saw within the federal sphere there was a void that needed to be filled and we did that. We also have Youth Services Canada and youth internship programs. Combined they have had a positive impact on the lives of over 30,000 young people.
These measures speak to how the government, the federal Government of Canada, has been able to address key concerns and issues affecting young people.
This is only the beginning. We realize that the future lies within our young people, within future generations. For this reason we have combined all these tools so that the future for the country and for future generations will look bright.
We have also made some headway in youth entrepreneurship programs that have helped young people acquire the proper skills, not to mention the important measure taken this summer of creating over 44,500 jobs through our summer job action plan and the spinoff from the Canada employment centre for students which was over 175,000. The commitment of the government as far as youth policy is concerned is crystal clear.