Public Accounts committee  Once the money is written off, the loan is not forgiven. The debt still survives.

Public Accounts committee  If I could just add—and Mark you might be more useful here—I don't think it stays with the third party collector at this point. There is no active collection after that point once it is written off.

Public Accounts committee  The way it works is that the consequence of having a loan written off is that they will no longer receive any other student loans or grants. If they want to apply for another one, they will have to—

Public Accounts committee  Mark, you might be more useful there.

Public Accounts committee  We have the number of page views, the number of students visiting different pages that we have launched. Those numbers we have, yes. I don't have the information with me right now, but we have those numbers.

Public Accounts committee  No, that's the last number we have so far.

Public Accounts committee  Yes, sure. In 2014, the request for proposals went out. That was not when the contract was actually signed; the contract was finalized in 2016 and was expected to be operational in 2018. That got delayed to make sure that we had an error-free disbursement of student loans and

Public Accounts committee  I'm sorry, the plan...? Do you mean to give them more information; is that what you're referring to?

Public Accounts committee  It is what our colleague from the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada has already touched on: providing more information with respect to financial literacy. There is already a virtual repayment counsellor that was launched last year, where students can go to look at different r

Public Accounts committee  We could get precise numbers but for example, eight per cent, as Graham mentioned, go into default. There are about 25% to 30% who end up using the repayment assistance plan. Roughly speaking, if you used that, the rest of them are paying off their loans without either defaulting

Public Accounts committee  Thank you. The rule right now—and it's the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act that has this provision—is that student loans are not discharged when someone declares bankruptcy. If they declare bankruptcy within seven years of leaving school, it's not discharged. If it's after seven y

Public Accounts committee  Thank you. The wait time varies a bit. Some days, we have had 15-minute wait times, and some days, up to 25, 30 or 35 minutes. Capacity has been increased significantly. More call centre agents have been added. One of the challenges has been to get call centre agents during thi

Public Accounts committee  Yes, the interest rate right now is prime. It used to be prime plus 2.5% in 2009; then it was reduced to prime.

Public Accounts committee  That is right now. The latest on it is that the fall economic statement yesterday announced that interest will be eliminated for the next year on Canada student loans.

Public Accounts committee  That is exactly correct, Madam Chair. It's based on income; it's not based on their savings or assets. If somebody loses their income, they become eligible at that point.