Permanently eliminate the federal interest on Canada Student Loans and Canada Apprentice Loans to support young Canadians who choose to invest in post-secondary education. This will benefit over 1 million student loan borrowers and save an average borrower more than $3,000 over the lifetime of their loan.

— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02

Increase the repayment assistance threshold to $50,000 for Canada Student Loan borrowers who are single. This means that new grads, working hard early in their careers, won’t have to begin repaying their loans until they earn at least $50,000 annually.

— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02

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Our vision is for every Canadian to have access to quality post-secondary education, regardless of their income. Over the long term, this means working with the provinces and territories to cap and reduce tuition fees, and building towards making post-secondary education part of our public education system so kids can go from kindergarten to a career without the barrier of cost. This is an important goal and we believe that with the right leadership and political will, we can get there.

There are steps we can take to make education more affordable right now. Five provinces have already shown leadership in eliminating interest rates on student loans. It’s time for the federal government to do the same, and stop profiting from student debt. New Democrats will remove interest from federal student loans, and to help lift the debt burden from young people starting out, we will introduce a targeted debt forgiveness program for graduates that will forgive up to $20,000 in student debt. In the first year alone, this will wipe out 20% of all student debt and help 350,000 borrowers save money every month.

We’ll also move away from loans and permanently double non-repayable Canada Student Grants. Accessing financial support for your post-secondary education shouldn’t be a debt sentence – we’ll make sure that young people can start out in life without a crushing debt burden.

— Ready for Better, retrieved 2021-08-27

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1. Abolish post-secondary education tuition

● Free “Education For All” is estimated to cost approximately $10.2 billion annually. Universal education is not a far financial reach from the existing student aid and can sustain a system of universally accessible, post-secondary education.

● Universal post-secondary education would be partially financed by redirecting existing spending on tuition tax credits, saved costs of administering the student loan system, and the hundreds of millions of dollars of student loan defaults written off every year.

2. Cancel all federally held student loan debt

● This will help prevent half of students who earn a bachelor’s degree in Canada from graduating with more than $28,000 in debt.

3. Reintroduce a retroactive Canada Emergency Student Benefit (CESB)

● Ensure all those eligible for the CESB receive $2,000 per month – the same amount as the Canada Recovery Benefit for the period beginning May 1, and until the pandemic is over.

● Ensure that international and recently graduated students are eligible to receive this benefit.

4. Remove the two per cent cap on increases in education funding for Indigenous students

● Ensure all Indigenous youth have access to post-secondary education.

5. Improve funding in federal-provincial transfers to universities and colleges

● Provide more funding to universities and colleges with a measurable focus on student-professor contact, mentorship, policies of inclusion and tenure track hires.

● Reinvest in the system. Greens will allocate $10 billion to post-secondary and trade school supports.

6. Build a more flexible and accessible education

● Expand opportunities for reskilling and retraining, by increasing the Canada Training Benefit to support continuous learning, and support for post-secondary institutions to provide new, innovative academic offerings.

● Enhance access to graduate education, by tripling the number of Canada Graduate Scholarships available for master’s students and doubling the number available for PhD students.

● Position Canada as a destination of choice for international talent and support post-secondary institutions to welcome international students safely.

— Be Daring., retrieved 2021-09-11

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