The hon. member for Pictou--Antigonish--Guysborough has used an analogy on a number of occasions. Essentially the level of student debt of many of these students in professional disciplines is equivalent to what it would cost to actually purchase a home. They have a mortgage but no home and no capacity to financially contribute to the economy.
Canada simply cannot afford to set these young people and their lives behind. I would like to explain for a moment how my motion would work.
The motion would allow post-secondary education students to deduct up to 10% of the principal of their student loans for up to 10 years provided they remained in Canada, which effectively would reduce their loan payments. This would allow young people to pay back their debts more quickly, which would then allow them to become more productive members of society and make large contributions by purchasing goods and stimulating the economy.
There is an economic stimulus to this aspect. This is the main reason why members of the Canadian business community have endorsed this motion as well. In their book published last year called Northern Edge: How Canadians Can Triumph in a Global Economy , Tom d'Aquino and David Stewart-Patterson, senior vice-president of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, endorsed this very motion. In fact they endorsed the post-secondary education electoral platform of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.
It was from that electoral platform that this motion was extracted. I want to pay immense tribute to the learned member from the riding of Kings--Hants who was the principle author of our electoral platform in the year 2000 and was the scribe that ensured that this aspect was included in our platform.
They wrote, referring to the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, “a tax credit equal to the significant portion of the principal of the student loan each year would enable all students to finance their education without taking on a lifelong burden of debt”.
Gilbert Chesterton wrote: “Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another”.
Let us be clear. If we do not address or resolve the problems of Canada's post-secondary education system, we risk cutting that transfer. We promise ourselves a future less bright and far less competitive than that which we deserve.
The second major way in which my motion addresses the crisis in post-secondary education is that it works to reverse brain drain. This is an initiative brought forth to use income tax as an instrument to mitigate the impact of student debt. However one only gets to benefit from the program if one is paying taxes in Canada.
To put this in perspective, using the health care profession as an example, an occupational therapist in my riding of Norton owes over $70,000. She went to St. FX and did very well there. Then she went to Dal and took occupational therapy. Now she owes $70,000. Quite easily a town in Nebraska could offer to pay down her debt if she gives five or six years service stateside. We lose not only the investment we have made in her education but we lose one of our best and our brightest. That is what we cannot afford to lose. Unfortunately that is what is happening each and every day in a myriad of professions due to their enormous debt load.
Third, the motion goes to the heart of student indebtedness and will positively affect thousands and thousands of students in Canada.
The intent of the motion is to provide a surgical strike right where it counts in addressing student debt. It puts money directly into the pockets of students. We know that if we merely transfer money to the provinces and on to the universities, the universities have to invest in the infrastructures of their schools. It may not result in lower tuition fees or address the issue of student debt. That is the intent of this.
I know the member for Saint-Hyacinthe--Bagot and his colleagues are supportive of this motion, especially due to the positive effect it will have on students who have both federal and provincial loans. I know the member is particularly attuned to the need for this motion since he himself only finished paying off his student debt recently at the age of 35, which I suspect must have had to be just last year.
We all know that provincial tax law quickly follows federal tax changes, and that the benefit of this motion would only be amplified. We are talking about a lot of students. The Canada student loan program lent out $1.7 billion to students in 1998-99.
In 1998-99, 350,000 full time students made use of the Canadian student loan program and borrowed on average over $4,600, and that is for one year .The average from provincial student loan programs is another $3,000, a combined debt of approximately $7,700 for one year.
It is true that the motion I have presented will cost Canadians something. When we prepared our 2000 election platform, we costed out this measure to somewhere around $1.2 billion over five years. I say somewhere because we used the most conservative of estimates.
There is a similar initiative that the Government of Canada is using at the moment where it enables a student to deduct the interest of their student debt from their income taxes. That costs the Government of Canada in the neighbourhood of $100 million right now.
If the same rate of take up was used for the principal issue, it may only cost in the neighbourhood of $400 million. That is the range we are utilizing. The most conservative estimate is the $1.2 billion program.
The fourth point I would like to mention is that it is important for us to start the much needed debate on the accessibility of post-secondary education.
The Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, known as CASA, a non-partisan organization representing well over 310,000 post-secondary students in Canada, endorsed my motion back in March and for very good reasons. Students in Canada have waited a very long time for this discussion. Liam Arbuckle, the national director of CASA, said that it had been a long time since the federal government seriously looked at improving post-secondary education in Canada and did something about it.
Institutions of that nature, whether it be CASA or the Canadian Federation of Students, have said that while this initiative is a positive one, it only addresses half the problem. They would like to have more upfront funding to mitigate the cost of tuition in the first place. I fully support where CFS is coming from, but this is one aspect to address the issue of student debt. We all know we need that kind of mechanism in place so we can mitigate the impact of student debt.
I am particularly appreciative of the support I have received from the Bloc and from Liberal members as well. All too often politicians sell out Canada's young students by arguing that we should be restrained with this subject by a constitutional straightjacket.
This is about students and not indenturing an entire generation. It is not about jurisdictional battles. It is about providing moneys to educate Canadians wherever they reside.
I am particularly pleased that this is now starting to cross partisan lines. I read the Telegraph-Journal earlier today, a learned publication. It said on page A3 that the finance minister supported the student debt reduction motion of the member for Fundy--Royal. We will see what kind of language we hear in this debate because this is when we find what the truth is in that regard.
I know the member for the riding of Fredericton, a Liberal member, is amenable to this. I have had a series of conversations with Liberal members and I expect this votable motion will receive support from all political backgrounds.
I also want to pay tribute to my colleague, the member for St. John's West, who is listening here tonight, for hosting a round table and for working on this issue.
This is the first time we have had a significant debate. It is a pleasure to have this votable motion discussed.