Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to be here today to discuss this issue, although it is not a very pleasant issue. I was the seconder of this motion and I was a factor in convincing our caucus to use our supply day to discuss what we consider one of the great problems in this country and one of the great pending tragedies for the next generation of Canadians that will help to contribute to our economic growth.
The problems of student debt are way greater than a student problem. It is a Canadian problem. It is the Canadian taxpayer's problem. We must deal with it as such.
The cost of having student debt in Newfoundland in particular and in the rest of Canada is reduced access to education. Education becomes an elitist kind of approach where individuals can get educated only if they have significant personal wealth. In many families that is simply not going to happen. Many students in many parts of the country are being discouraged from getting an education.
We all know that job opportunities and education go together. It is really a penny wise and pound foolish kind of policy to have a situation where we effectively discourage people from getting educated. The future growth of Canada is definitely at stake if we do not do something with this student debt problem. Again, I say this is one of the reasons that our caucus has made this one of the most important policy matters that we want to deal with.
We know we have to try in opposition to influence the government to deal with real problems in Canada. This real problem in Canada seems not to be fully understood by the Government of Canada. Our job in opposition is to bring it to the attention of the Government of Canada and to see if we can find solutions to the problem.
The problem is horrendous and huge. There are 1.5 million students presently enrolled in Canadian post-secondary institutions. Collectively these are the youngest and brightest people who are trying to get ahead in Canada, who are doing the most for the future of Canada and for themselves and for their future families. Those 1.5 million students now owe collectively $6.9 billion. Most of them do not have anything but a part time job, working on an education.
There is a tragedy brewing in this country if tuition fees and education costs continue to rise. This country cannot grow into the next century. This new millennium we all want to talk about is going to be an apprehensive place for a lot of those students once they graduate.
One of the other problems we have, besides having tremendous student debt, is that we have tremendously high student unemployment. We can brag about the employment rates in this country that may be 8% to 9% for adults. The Stats Canada figures for the real unemployment rate below 30 years of age is 16.5%. In Newfoundland where I come from it is 23.5%, statistically proven. In real terms in Atlantic Canada if the truth were known for those students and young people who are still in Atlantic Canada we probably have an unemployment rate well in excess of 30%.
That causes the other great problem which Atlantic Canada and in particular Newfoundland have been all too familiar with, the problem of out-migration.
The member for Kamloops is wrong if he thinks that Canada has a net brain gain. We have more people leaving Saskatchewan, we have more people leaving Newfoundland. Where are they going to? There was a time when we could export some of our most uneducated people out of Atlantic Canada, out of Newfoundland to parts of central Canada.
Central Canada is going to find out and British Columbia is going to find out that a lot of the job opportunities for our new students who have tremendous debt, who need to go to areas where there is lower taxation, higher rates of pay and greater opportunities, when they want to visit their children or their grandchildren they better have a passport to visit them because they are not going to be in Canada.
I am going to quote a very prominent Liberal on this problem because sometimes I think the Government of Canada does not really take into account where this problem came from. This is a letter from one of our well known Liberal premiers who was a Liberal cabinet minister. When asked by my colleague from St. John's East the premier of Newfoundland answered: “The rising cost of post-secondary education is due in part to the reduction in transfer payments that was particularly targeted to post-secondary education”.
It is not a coincidence that over $6 billion in transfer cuts have happened since this Liberal government took office in 1993. It is not a coincidence that there is also $6.9 billion worth of debt for students in this country. It is not a coincidence that the provinces of Canada took the cut in federal transfers and simply transferred them to somewhere else. The federal guys transferred the cuts to the provinces, the provinces transferred them to the universities and the universities did what? They transferred them to the students. That is where the $6.9 billion of debt comes from.
As I said, with the effects of that transfer to students across this country some have taken the most terrible of all courses.
In Newfoundland they have actually chosen not to go to universities or colleges. They have chosen not to get educated. They see examples in dying rural communities where people are saying what is the point of getting educated. What is the point of my degree if I owe $30,000 and there are no jobs? I might as well not have gone at all.
For Canada that is the most expensive and tragic alternative. We all know there is a direct correlation between education and employment. If you choose not to get educated you will live on the social welfare system of Canada for the next 40 or 50 years of your supposed working life.
Another terrible tragedy from this terrible debtload is bankruptcies. Almost 8,000 bankruptcies are from students. These are not people who went into business. These are not people who have mortgages on their homes. These are not people who have travelled extensively and who have wasted money. There were 8,000 young Canadian declaring bankruptcy in 1996-97. It was because they went to school.
Another tragedy is the collection agencies, which this government should do something about. I know one of those agencies is based in the U.S.
Talk to parents who are trying to help their children pay off their loans with their savings. Some become targets of collection agencies when their children who cannot pay the loans themselves move within or outside of Canada. It is nothing short of mafia style collection tactics. I could give song and verse about some families in Newfoundland that are digging into their meagre savings accounts.
I have a letter from one parent whose daughter owes $19,000. The mother has $16,000 in savings and the collection company will not take it. Unless you pay it all, it does not want anything from you. The out-migration is unbelievable.
If we do not educate students at a reasonable cost we will have another great problem. Where is the source of future economic growth in Canada? In the year 2006 of the new millennium who will buy cars and houses? Who will have the money? Who will have the money to pay into the Canada pension plan to keep members of our age group reasonably content? Where is the economic growth? It comes from well employed, well paid people who pay taxes to this country. That is not going to happen.
The finance minister has solved our deficit problem for the late 1990s but I think he will create a huge economic and social problem 10 or 15 years from now when a large number of people cannot work and cannot spend on consumer goods.
Entrepreneurship and small business is such an important part of Canada's future growth. Small business creates most of our jobs. We all know that if you are going to get involved in a business you had better have some net personal worth when you go to the bank. I met a young lady the other day with a masters in engineering. She wants to start a business but she owes $57,000. Go down to one of our chartered banks and say that you have this great business idea. Guess what it will say? No business loan, no job creation, no real constructive place for you in Canada.
As the member for Kamloops said, it is all a matter of making choices. There are choices. We can decide to freeze tuition. We can decide to lower student debt. We can forget this millennium fund which will help somebody somewhere in the future. Instead we can help students in our universities today who will graduate this year.
I know. I went to a university in Newfoundland and I had free tuition. It works. A whole generation of us who went to university in Newfoundland in 1965 to 1970 had free tuition. Guess what? There was a whole generation of us who got educated, never had to draw unemployment insurance over 30 working years and contributed to the economy.
The investments that countries like Ireland are making into free tuition, the investment that Newfoundland made into free tuition from 1965 to 1970 are bold, visionary and they work. That is what this country needs when it comes to student debt. It does not need something called a millennium fund for some scholarships for some students. It really needs to get a handle on the cost of education and the idea that if we do create an educated workforce we will have jobs into the future and we will have a very successful country. I can only urge the Government of Canada to start paying attention to this very tragic problem.
