Appearance before the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (December 1, 2020): Office of the Auditor General of Canada audit of the Canadian Student Loans Program

Issue

The House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Accounts has invited Judith Robertson to appear before the Committee on Tuesday, December 1, in view of its study of Student Financial Assistance, in the 2020 Spring Reports of the Auditor General of Canada.

Background

• The Auditor General (OAG) released a report on post-secondary student financial assistance on July 8, 2020. It looked at the roles of Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC), the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and FCAC.
• The audit had only one recommendation for the Agency:
  • “As soon as possible, ESDC, in collaboration with the FCAC, should:
    • Make available on the web portal of the National Student Loans Service Centre all the financial information needed by loan recipients in the Canada Student Loans Program.
    • Consult stakeholders about the costs and benefits of mandatory training for student loan applicants before loans are provided and for student loan recipients who abandon or complete their studies.”
• The Agency agreed, “The FCAC will support ESDC by providing access to educational materials for inclusion on the web portal. The agency will also support the department with advice related to mandatory training for students receiving direct loans from the CSLP.”
• The OAG’s news release stated: “The audit also found that despite repeated requests from the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada, ESDC had yet to ensure that the Student Loans Service Centre web portal include information to help raise students’ understanding of their financial obligations.”
• ESDC’s news release noted, “ESDC is working with the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada to improve financial literacy tools to ensure that student loan borrowers understand their repayment options and financial obligations, including by launching the virtual repayment counsellor on the National Student Loans Service Centre (NSLSC) web portal in November 2019.”

Quick facts

• During the time of the audit, ie before March 31, 2019, there were no financial literacy links to the National Student Loans Service Centre (NSLSC) website
• Some links to FCAC resources were added to the NSLSC portal in June 2019
• The Financial Literacy page on the NSLSC portal was launched in March 2020
• This page was revamped in fall 2020 with the addition of more images and icons and user-friendly navigation (available only to student borrowers)