Liberal broken promises from their budget
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Topic: Liberal broken promises from their budget
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Subject: Liberal broken promises from their budget
Date Posted: 02/June/2004 at 11:43am
National Post March23 2004
OTTAWA - As the federal government prepares to deliver another budget today, a new analysis shows it has failed to deliver on budgetary promises intended to help university students and their parents six years ago.
Delivered by Paul Martin, then the finance minister, the government has yet to meet the targets it set out in its 1998 budget:
- Help 12,000 graduates every year pay off their unmanageable debt loads;
- Spend $100-million annually on grants for needy students;
- Distribute $145-million annually in interest relief for struggling graduates; and
- Reduce the debt load of recipients of Canada Millennium Scholarships by as much as $12,000 each.
The Debt Reduction in Repayment program, unveiled in the 1998 budget, was designed to help 12,000 graduates pay off their debt every year. In its first year, 44 graduates were eligible for help. The pickup rate grew to 614 in 2001 and 1,312 in 2003 -- a pittance of the public commitment to serve 12,000 students every year.
"The actuals were nowhere near the forecasts," conceded David Cogliati, director-general of the Canada Student Loans Program. There was always an understanding within the bureaucracy that it would take some time to meet the target, but the government never provided a timetable, he said.
In 1998, Mr. Martin also made a three-year commitment to spend $100-million annually on Canada Study Grants, a new program to help targeted groups of students, namely those with children, part- timers and female doctoral students in non-traditional fields.
In 2001, Mr. Martin again promised to increase spending on Canada Study Grants, this time to $120-million in each of the next three years.
But Ottawa has never spent even $100-million on the program. Spending fluctuated from $73.87-million in 1998/99 to $81.08- million in 2000/01 to $67.35-million in 2001/02; that year, most of the grants went to students with children. Only 190 female doctoral candidates received a grant.
Finance Minister Ralph Goodale is to announce a new provision in the Canada Study Grants program so some low-income students may receive a grant to cover a portion of their tuition fees in their first year of studies.
The government's interest relief program was also enhanced in the 1998 budget, with a commitment to increase spending from $80- million in 1998/99 to $130-million in 1999/00 to $145-million in 2000/01. Under the interest relief program, the government pays the interest on a student loan if a graduate meets certain criteria.
None of these targets were met.
The biggest gap, in 1999/00, showed a spending discrepancy of $46.4-million. Most recently, Ottawa spent $65.3-million on interest relief in 2002/03. That year, the average debt load of graduates who took out student loans was estimated at more than $21,000; recipients received an average subsidy of $509.
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