Madam Speaker, I know the member for London—Fanshawe referenced this around the fact that our young people today are already facing an enormous debt burden that many of us did not face when we were in our late teens and early twenties. The member also talked about student loans. We know many students are coming out of post-secondary education institutions with thousands of dollars in debt.
Now we compound that debt by having unethical practices by credit card companies that often go right onto campuses and target the young people on campus. Now we have a young person accumulating a student loan debt. We know that with the cost of education right many young people are struggling as it is to meet costs while in colleges and universities. When thee get this credit card they feel that it will be their salvation. Maybe they can actually afford to eat this month because they have a credit card. Maybe they can afford to buy their textbooks because they have a credit card.
What these young people often do not understand, because this is probably one of their very first experiences with the credit situation, is the huge price tag that is attached to that credit card. They do not know that they could be paying 18%, 19% or 20% in interest charges and that one-fifth of their monthly payment will go toward interest. One can think of what they could have bought with that extra 20%.
I would argue that if we want to protect young people for the future generation, we need to ensure they can be economically engaged in our society. We do not want them coming out of a college or university saddled with not only a huge student loan but also with a credit card debt that makes it impossible for them to engage in their economic world in a meaningful way.