House of Commons Unanimously Passes Extended Moratorium on Student Loan Payments

On November 24^th, 2020, the House of Commons passed the following motion unanimously:

“That the House recognize the significant financial hardship that COVID-19 has caused to post-secondary students across Canada and, in effort to alleviate such hardship, call on the Government to extend the moratorium on repaying student loans to cover October 1, 2020 through May 31, 2021.”

 

Our government supported this motion because we agree in principle that COVID-19 has caused post-secondary students significant financial hardship across Canada and we will work to alleviate such hardship.

Throughout the pandemic, we have put in place significant measures to support students and we will continue to make significant investments in students and youth knowing very well the impact that economic downturns have on them.

Support for students to date:

• We put in place the Canada Emergency Student Benefit which provided a $1,250 base benefit amount to eligible students, and an additional $750 per month to those with dependents or a disability. Over $1.4 billion to over 600,000 students through the CESB.
• To help students get through this difficult time, our government put in place a 6-month moratorium on Student Loan payments, helping over 1 million young Canadians, from March 1^st to September 30^th, 2020.
• For students who began resuming their repayment, we put in place measures to help them with their loans.
• Under the Repayment Assistance Plan, borrowers only pay what they can afford and only need to start repaying their loan when they earn at least $25,000 per year.
• We also doubled Canada Student Grants for all full-time to up to $6,000 and for part-time students to up to $3,600 for those who meet the eligibility criteria. This includes low-income students, students with disabilities and students with dependents – groups that often face financial challenges when accessing post-secondary education.
• We have also reduced interest rates and instituted a six-month interest-free grace period after a borrower leaves school; saving the average borrower approximately $2,000.
• We have invested an additional $75.2 million in 2020-2021 to support for First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Nation students pursuing post-secondary education.

We continue to look at ways to support students through this extraordinary time so they can keep studying, and start their careers on the right foot.