Appearance before the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (December 1, 2020): Environment scan – Canadian students debt review

Media coverage of the release of the Auditor General’s report on the Canada Student Loans program

When the Auditor General released his report on July 8, there were 3 news items about the report and the findings.

• A news release by the Honourable Carla Qualtrough, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion published on Canada.ca and the wire. In her statement, she said recommendations were aligned with the work already underway to improve the program. She added that 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.
• CTV News published an article on July 8 providing an overview of many of the inadequacies outlined by the Auditor General in his report. The article references a section in the report that outlines that multiple requests by to ESDC to ensure that the Student Loans Service Centre web portal includes financial literacy tools to help students understand their repayment options went unresolved. This article was also published on CJAD 800 Montreal radio’s website.
• The Georgia Straight also published an article focusing on the findings that many borrowers were not paying back their loans. The article mentions the Auditor General’s recommendation for ESDC and FCAC to collaborate in the creation of a web portal to make more financial information about the program available.

Media coverage of Canadian students and debt from September 1 – November 26

• On September 3, just in time for back to school, the Globe and Mail published an article about how COVID-19 has affected post-secondary unevenly. The article mentions students having difficulty finding summer employment to help pay for school, students having to budget more carefully as they return to school, and that as of August 19, 690,874 students had applied for Ottawa's Canada Emergency Student Benefit.
• On November 5, the Globe and Mail published an opinion piece by Craig Lamb, Senior policy analyst for the Brookfield Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Ryerson University in Toronto. The article contains statistics on Student Loan borrowers as student debt as rising in Canada over the past few years.
  
  • 330,000 people accessed the federal Repayment Assistance Plan in 2018-19, up 11 per cent from the previous year
  • More than 356,000 Canada Student Loans borrowers were in default
• Abacus Data published a report on November 17 entitled, “COVID-19 & Canadian Youth: Impacts, Perspectives and The Recovery”, that found that young Canadians are among the hardest hit by COVID-19. Many are finding they must make fundamental shifts in their employment and finances in order to get through the pandemic as opportunities to work to pay for education and bills are impacted due to the pandemic’s impact on certain sectors such as retail, restaurant, hospitality, and tourism, which employ young Canadians. Furthermore, opportunities for internships and work in their field are also limited due to many companies’ aversion to take on new employees at this time.

Reaction to Government of Canada COVID-19 student relief measures

• There is an online petition by the Don’t Forget Students campaign asking the Government of Canada to provide income supports to students and recent graduates regardless of employment history to support them through this difficult time. The petition has almost 50,000 signatures as of November 17.
• On September 3, just in time for back to school, the Globe and Mail published an article about how COVID-19 has affected post-secondary unevenly. The article mentions students having difficulty finding summer employment to help pay for school, students having to budget more carefully as they return to school, and that as of August 19, 690,874 students had applied for Ottawa's Canada Emergency Student Benefit.
• On September 11, young Canadians participated in an online summit to discuss the problems young people face in the job market and in future workplaces as Canada emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic. The article said many struggling youths are “hoping to harness government efforts to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic to solve problems related to youth unemployment and precarious work, financial literacy and other obstacles.” Two of the 5 key themes to emerge from the summit’s discussions were the need for a universal basic income and an improvement in financial literacy among young Canadians.
• As the federal government’s COVID-19 relief measures for students, such as the CESB and student loan payment deferrals, came to an end on September 30, the Toronto Star published an article about how students will manage without these assistance programs. The article also provided some tips from Keith Emery, co-CEO of Credit Canada, a not-for-profit credit counselling service, on how students can tackle their debt during COVID-19. The Canadian Press also featured an article about how unemployed recent grads can manage their college loan debt.
• Bryn de Chastelain, chair of the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, says his group wants Ottawa to extend the moratorium. He says the job market is still reeling from COVID-19, creating stress among students and recent grads juggling loans, high tuition costs and other bills. Ottawa suspended repayments for approximately one million borrowers in repayment from March 30 to Sept. 30, saying no interest would accrue on student loans during the same period. The Undergraduates of Canadian Research Intensive Universities, a student union alliance, has proposed a two-year grace period for new graduates' loans as they ease into a disrupted workforce.

Student issues in Parliament

Since Parliament resumed in September, several New Democratic Party (NDP) members and their leader Jagmeet Singh, have pressed the Government during Question Period about their COVID-19 measures for students including demanding they extend many of the programs for students.

• Some of the types of assistance the NDP have called for is help with rent, groceries, and tuition fees, a well as assistance in obtaining skills and gainful employment.
• The NDP’s actions culminated in proposing an opposition motion that called for the government to extend the moratorium for eight months starting retroactively from Oct. 1 to May 31, 2021. The motion passed unanimously on November 24, however a motion is a non-binding document, and does not mean the government has introduced legislation to begin this process.