Mr. Speaker, I would like to pick up on one portion of my colleague's speech where he painted what I would suggest is a picture that is not entirely accurate.
I recall in the last federal Liberal budget there was a clause that forgave the loans of students who were permanently disabled or students who had died. Outside of that, the New Democrats in this corner of the House were shocked not to find any other substantive measure to help students directly with their student debts.
This is obviously something that has been identified in the chamber and in committees year in and year out. Over the 12 or 13 years that the Liberal Party was in government, one would have thought there would have been attention paid to that. Over those 13 years the average debt in this country went up $1,000 per year each and every year.
There is this growing transfer of debt burden from the government and the provinces to the students. It was shown in the numbers. It was not until the NDP pushed the government to find the money that everyone knew it had but which had gone into corporate tax breaks, that it finally showed up.
Now the Conservatives have come to power and are allowing students to take bigger loans. That is the Conservative solution.
Would the member clarify the actual history under the previous government and particularly with the last Liberal budget? In particular Bill C-48 finally put the money in that students, universities and colleges had been requesting for years, but their requests had been falling upon deaf ears.