Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I'm struck by the figures coming out of the Canada student loan program writeoffs. I'm sure members around this table can recall when they went to university. I know that for me it was not too long ago. If I recall, I was paying about $3,500 in tuition at Acadia at the time. At that time it was very expensive. I have deep concerns about the increasing financialization of post-secondary education as it relates to providing equal opportunities to everybody to be able to engage in our post-secondary education system.
Mr. Chair, when I look at 33,098 writeoffs, I have to wonder what we're doing in terms of saddling this whole generation of students with debt.
A voice: No, we're not.
Mr. Matthew Green: Well, we are. If they're writing it off, you can imagine the collections process that happens for students who are having to write off this debt, it also has ancillary implications on their financial outlook. Even though the government's writing it off, you can imagine the pressure that's on these students.
As we look at the rising costs of every aspect of life—the financialization of education, housing, food, transit—the question is put quite rightly. This is obviously the writeoff on the previous estimate. What factors do you think account for the increased dollar value in unrecoverable debt from 2019 to 2020 in the fiscal year, compared to 2018 to 2019? If you care to comment on my colleague's comment, what are the consequences for students when this debt gets written off on their behalf?