Madam Speaker, I am pleased to respond to the member for Scarborough—Rouge River on the issue of affordable post-secondary education.
Our government recognizes the vital role that post-secondary education plays in our country's economic success. Over the past six years, our government has done more for students than any government before it. We are aware of the rising cost of education and the challenges students are facing. To ensure higher educations remains affordable and accessible to Canadians, we put concrete measures in place to help students reduce and manage debt.
To start, we introduced non-repayable grants. In the 2009-10 academic year, nearly 300,000 students received close to $600 million in grants. These grants are aimed at students who need it the most. For example, students from low-income families received an average of $1,900 in grants last year.
Grants are not the only measure we have introduced. Student loan borrowers who have difficulty repaying their loans can turn to the federal government for support. We introduced repayment assistance plans to help borrowers who are having trouble making ends meet. Under this plan, no student will have to pay more than 20% of their income toward their student loan and no borrower will have a repayment period of more than 15 years, or 10 years if the borrower has a permanent disability.
For many of these borrowers, they will not be required to make any payments until their income increases. This plan has already helped 160,000 student loan borrowers in the last academic year. Of those, 90% did not have to make any payments at all.
Our government is doing its part to ensure that Canadians have access to post-secondary education and that they have the means to pursue that education.
We set out new measures for students in budget 2011 and we are acting swiftly to implement them.
First, we have eliminated the interest on part-time student loans while students are in school.
Second, we are increasing the income threshold used to determine eligibility of part-time Canada student loans and grants. This will allow more part-time students to qualify for financial assistance.
Finally, we have increased the amount full-time students can earn, from $50 to $100 to per week, without affecting the eligibility of their loans.
I would like to remind the member for Scarborough—Rouge River that provinces and territories are responsible for tuition levels and the federal government provides funding to the provinces and territories in support of post-secondary education through the Canada social transfer, which ensures that they have the flexibility to manage their own spending.
Our government is working diligently to make post-secondary education accessible and affordable for Canadians. We are committed to having the most educated and skilled workforce in the world. We have put forward more measures to help students in order to ensure this occurs, and we have done it in spite of the opposition voting against all of these measures.