Cameron Jette just started their first-year at Carleton and is already worried about paying off student debt.
“I have already accumulated a debt of around $20,000 and I am not even finished my first semester of university,” Jette said in an email.
The Enriched Support Program (ESP) student said they went away to college for one semester and then decided it wasn’t for them.
“That left me in debt of around $12,000, and I didn’t even leave with any accreditation,” Jette said.
This is exactly the type of problem Andrea Horwath, the leader of the Ontario NDP, has promised to relieve.
On Monday, Horwath announced the provincial portion of student loan interest in Ontario would be immediately eliminated if elected in 2018.
Horwath presented the same campaign promise before losing to Ontario Liberal leader Kathleen Wynne in 2014. The Liberals promised to introduce more interest-free and low-cost loans for students from middle and upper-income families.
Last February, the Liberals also introduced the Ontario Student Grant, promising free tuition for students with a family income of less than $50,000. Horwath has promised to do the same.
“The government should not be making a profit off of the fact that students in Ontario need to take out loans to afford post-secondary education, it’s just not right,” Horwath said in a press release on Sept. 26.
Gayle McFadden, national executive representative for the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario (CFS), said she agrees with Horwath.
McFadden said the removal of interest on student loans is something the CFS continues to advocate for.
“We’ve been stating all along that the government should not be making money off of student debt,” she said. “Student assistance should assist and not hurt students further.”
According to the CFS, a student with a debt load of around $26,000 who opts for the average repayment period of 9.5 years would pay about $6,000 in interest on their student loan.
There is a six-month period after graduation that students are not required to pay back their student loans–but they are still acquiring interest during this time.
McFadden said she’d like to see student loan interest eliminated at the federal level as well.
“It’s really important that we’re bringing this conversation up to not just provincial, but federal,” she said.
Jette said they qualify for free tuition come September 2017, but worries about paying back the debt they already accumulated.
“The stress of the looming student debt repayment definitely impacts me in school as it makes me question my career path, and my choice to even continue on in post-secondary studies,” Jette added.
“With the job market and the workforce the way it is currently, I may not have a job and therefore no means to pay off my student debt and that is really scary to think about.”
