Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure for me also to join in this debate on Bill C-316 presented by the member for London North Centre. Like others this evening, I congratulate him for bringing this bill forward.
The purpose of the bill is to allow those paying off student loans to deduct the interest on the loan from income for tax purposes. This bill is an attempt to deal with the increasing problem of student debt. All across Canada students in universities and colleges are facing steadily and steeply rising costs, increases in tuition and increases in other fees.
We know this is not something that can be solved by a single action or even by a few actions by government. The best way to deal with debt is to avoid it. I know the member for London North Centre knows this.
The government is making great efforts to help students avoid debt. For example, as the member mentioned, the changes in the RESPs now include grants so that families which are putting money aside in RESPs now get grants that match to a certain level the money they are putting aside. So we actually have grants which help students avoid debt.
The millennium scholarships have been mentioned in a negative way by the member from the Bloc. In effect the millennium scholarships are also grants. A substantial number of those scholarships, $100,000 a year for 10 years starting in 2000, are in effect grants. They will be based on need. Some will of course be based on merit but many will be based on need. I cannot understand how the member from the Bloc can oppose such a program.
Also to help avoid debt, the government has done its best to help students find work before they go to college or university, while they are at college or university and in their years immediately following graduation. For example, the federal government's summer job programs have increased greatly since 1994.
Another simple example of helping students find jobs is our increased support for the research grant councils, the NSERC and SSHRC and the Medical Research Council. Those moneys which go into research programs on our campuses rapidly produce jobs for students while they are in school, helping in labs with experiments and things like that, and jobs during the summers on research programs of various types. Those jobs provide money which helps the students avoid debt, but they also provide education. One of the greatest ways to learn is to work in jobs of that type. They also provide the students with this invaluable experience for when they graduate. They can get a job which will help them again avoid debt.
In our increased support for science in the federal line departments it is the same thing. An example, although it is not a department, is the National Research Council. Its funding goes to, among other things, helping students find meaningful work in science projects all across the country.
Another way we have tried to help students avoid debt is by simply eliminating the deficit and stimulating the economy and bringing the interest rates down. The unemployment rate in Canada now is at its lowest level in 10 years.
The renewed national youth strategy was announced yesterday in the west by the Prime Minister. All those things are designed to help students find jobs, have money and avoid debt. But when they are faced with it, which Bill C-316 addresses, the question is how to cope with it.
As he and others have said, we have already improved the Canada student loan program. There is a longer period of time after graduating before students have to start paying off the loans. We have special measures for students who find exceptional difficulties after they graduate in dealing with their loans. There are extra funds, as the member for London North Centre mentioned, available now for loans and more flexible ways for paying those moneys back.
Bill C-316 deals with the interest aspect. I agree with the member for London North Centre that this is an investment on the student's part. It is exactly like the business owner who gets a tax benefit on the interest for business investment loans. There is no difference. The member for London North Centre is right.
I understand there is a similar program in the United States which has been operating effectively for a number of years. The Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, which I am sure would support this measure, has pointed out in its recent brief that it is not just tuition which is increasing. There are now many compulsory student ancillary fees. They are not really ancillary fees anymore. A student cannot go to college or university without paying these fees anymore than he or she can go without paying tuition.
The Canadian Alliance of Student Associations urges that student ancillary fees should also be tax deductible. I am sure that group of students at least, and many others across the country, would support the member for London North Centre and Bill C-316 in the first step which is to make the interest on student loans tax deductible.