Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague from the NDP. I know of his deep interest in aboriginal issues, particularly in improving the health, welfare and education systems of aboriginal people so that they have the tools to stand on their own feet.
The member's question was about why we did not have government funding for post-secondary education up to and including bachelor degrees. The bottom line is money. Unfortunately we have a limited amount of money and we have to do the best we can with the resources we have.
The leader of the Reform Party championed the concept of an income contingent loan replacement scheme in the last parliament. This is a very clever scheme that would provide for a greater amount of loans for students. Those moneys could actually go into a system that is far more accountable and more money would stay in the system.
In essence, when a student leaves school loaned moneys would be paid back on the basis of the earnings potential of the student, rather than current system where the student has to pay the whole shot back in a very short period of time, usually at a time when it is very difficult to acquire a job.
If the House and my hon. colleague in the NDP were able to work with us to champion that, we would do a great service to students by implementing an income contingent loan replacement scheme which would provide for more money for students while not extracting more money from taxpayers.