Is there a better way to handle student loans?

What an incredible idea. We could learn from the Australian system. Extremely fair, and no cost to the government in the long run.

Hopefully it would catch our Canadian graduates who defect to other countries after they graduate. Like all countries, we subsidize the true cost of education. I support that it is necessary. But it's very disturbing when our (parental taxpayers) hard earned tax dollars end up training a graduate who leaves Canada to pursue employment opportunities.

i like this idea. they should make payments based upon your income regardless. i've been trying to pay my student loans off for years, and the minimum payments they want is ridiculous. and the worst part is i'm not even making a dent in the amount i owe them. it's all going to interest.

Yes, it is the same for my wife. The interest is ridiculous. Canada needs educated people and yet they make money off of people trying to get ahead. Somehing needs to be done aboutthe interest charged on student loans.

How much of the $80 Billion debt includes FREE education for Immigrants? For Canadian
students, it is a great idea !

I agree, i think this would solve a lot of issues here in Canada. I also have a student loan i have been trying to pay off. I am unemployed as well. here in Canada they always get their money! they have been keeping all of my tax returns and all GST/HST credits go to paying down the loan. Sad part is this doesn't even come close to covering the intrest! maybe when i turn 67 they will get the rest!

Great idea. I've been trying to pay off loans for years; I simply can't afford the monthly amount they want. It's not like I don't WANT to pay my loan off; I just can't afford to. They don't want to accept the little amount I CAN pay (which would only cover the interest), so I don't make any payments at all. So, they keep my income tax and GST, and my loan gets paid that way. It actually evens out to the monthly amount they want, yet it doesn't stop the harassing phone calls saying I'm not making any effort to pay it off....

This HAS to be a better way; the fact the default rate is so low proves it.

A great idea? NOT!!! Its just shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic....no real change except for one thing: by defering the interest, it lets the blood suckers of the education system HIDE just how much their training will cost you in the long run. The student still gest screwed....and is likely to get hit with first interst payments right about the time their company closes its doors or the marriage disolves or the job and training goes obsolete.....so tax payer gets stuck with the bill again....as usual.....2 years ago here in Ontario the teachers college graduated 15,000 students and the Ontario school system was able to hire 5000 of them.....for the other 10,000 aspiring teachers the education was a waste of money. The education system has cbecome a money mill for greedy educators and the interest in the student loans has replaced real tax revenue for our governments.

Maybe try cutting the treacher's and other staff's pay back. Then have some more affordible housing for students. And don't make them buy new books when only a few words were changed. There is alot of other things that could be done, but no one has the balls or brains.

I think that if you get a student loan and graduate from university/college/trade school the loan should be "forgiven". This only seems fair since post-secondary education is a minimum now for most jobs. Imagine the jump to the economy if all the people in their 20's-40's with loans suddenly had that monthly payment available to spend on things like housing, clothing, their kids, etc.

I'm paying Prime + 2.5% on my loan. If I lock in, it's automatically Prime + 5%. Even that seems a bit unfair, the least they could do on a floating interest rate is shave a bit, instead of adding some.

Dorothy, you're living in a dream world. why should the loans be "forgiven"? Where will the bloodsuckers... I mean, government.. get their money then? Instead, how about if, after years and years of trying to pay (say 15 years), THEN forgiving what is still outstanding? That seems fairer.

And just so you all know, INCOME TAX began in 1918 as a TEMPORARY measure to pay for the FIRST world war. Well, people, the final payment on that was made in 2011, yet we still sit here like the sheep we are and KEEP PAYING IT!!! Why? Because it has become "the norm"? NOW is the time to put a stop to this nonsense. NO ONE in their right mind would continue paying a debt after it has been settled, so why are we? RISE UP CANADIANS!! PUT A STOP TO THIS NOW!!!

Lots of advantages to this Australian model, for both the Govt and the grad students. There must be a better system than the current. The burden of student loans is a distraction and negative pyschologically for young students or retraining adults who are trying to be more productive Canadians. The brain drain would continue for these reasons. There is a lot of useful feed-back from all the contributors to this forum. Hope the appropriate elected representatives and educators take action soon. Might be helpful to pay some attention to the advice from front-line intake and enforcement/collection staff.

It comes down to how visible the issue is. Most politicians would never make a change unless there is enough "outrage". I do not think anyone would argue it is a good system in Canada. I do not think the money should be forgiven, it is a loan like any other, the interest is the problem. It should be a fully funded government program, with a fully funded collection process...Granted there are a few leaders out there that actually give a damn. When danny williams took over as the premier of Newfoundland, he eliminated interest on all Newfoundland funded Student loans, so every cent I pay on those loans goes towards the principal. Now, only if other provinces would follow, the federal government may do the same.

College and University educations are the biggest scam going, as you can see by the video link provided. What's it going to take for the general population to understand a, a college or university education has no value, if everybody has one. B, the education to automation, to no jobs bubble. You educate yourself to the point whereas everything is automated and then scratch your head wondering why nobody has a job bubble.

Absolutely, we should learn from what they are doing with regards to student loans in Australia and I do agree to the above regarding many University and more so College Diplomas are the biggest scam out there, despite myself having a University education.

Canada is a nation that now lives on debt. We rank number 1, yes #1 in household debt, because people continue to get suckered into buying houses that they just can't afford. We are due for a US style housing collapse and it will be very sad to many families when that starts.

Essentially, we have students coming out of University with crazy debt, getting into more debt, buying homes and condos that they should not own.

Something needs to be done!

Tuition and education costs should be dollar for dollar tax deductible and education programs should be monitored by our government for their effectiveness- many schools sell the idea of education at a price that any graduate from their school/program would be unable to pay back due to the lack of reasonable job prospects. Entrepreneurs with no university education are better off than anyone with a useless degree who cannot find work in their field. High school students need better guidance before deciding their future as they are too young and naive to understand that the education system is often (not always) about money money money.

This article is misleading in that it does not address the real issue. The problem is NOT the loan system or whether or not we subsidize education.

The REAL problem is the fact that we do not have SOUND MONEY in Canada (or Australia for that matter). Sound monetary policy means price stability which is the result of a currency which is backed by something of value (gold). Our money is backed by NOTHING other than a government promise.

Our governments borrow from central banks which print all the money that is in circulation out-of-thin air (fiat money), which in turn is the cause of inflation (inflation is the value of your dollars going down - not the prices of goods going up)!

See, our western governments are beholden to a private international banking cartel which controls most of the world's central banks (see "Rothschilds" family). These banks receive interest for nothing on loans to supposedly sovereign governments, who in turn use their "power" to tax their populations as collateral for the loan. This is why when you pay your income taxes to the federal government, you make your check paybale to the "Receiver General" - that's because the whole country is in receivership to the bank.

This is why personal income taxes were created less than 100 years ago! Because they go to pay down the interest on the public debt; a debt that should never exist because a truely sovereign country would be printing the people's money interest free! Think about it; Why would a sovereign government be paying interest to someone to print their own money???

Therefore, we have a double-edged sword:

First, the value of money is plummeting (that's why education costs are so high relative to earlier years as well as relative to current income levels) and second, we have less moneyand savings in private hands because we are taxed at 40 to 50% of what we earn.

The population is in debt (due to loans and credit); the government has no money (even though it is taxing us to the max), so how are we going to subsidize education? By printing even more money and creating even more debt? How are students going to pay for these exhorbitant loans when the system is designed to keep you poor?

It's a scam people! A pyramid sceme of debt where all money and resources are being funneled to the top of the pyramid.

And the government (which legally is YOU), the entire population and those poor students will be working all of their lives to pay their debt and taxes (which all go to the bank that prints the money out of thin air).

What can you do?

If you live in the USA, I would say vote RON PAUL. Otherwise, go to websites like: WWW.INFOWARS.COM to get real news about real issues.

Learn to defend yourself. Buy physical gold and silver, take half of your money outside the banking system, use cash for everything you can, stand up for your rights.

If you want to learn about money and banking I would recommend the following:

1. "THE MONEY MASTERS" - (documentary you can find online)

2. "FROM FREEDOM TO FASCISM" - (Documentary by Aaron Russo, also available online)

3. WWW.INFOWARS.COM

4. Youtube "RON PAUL", "MAX KEISER", "BOB CHAPMAN", "GERALD CELENTE"