In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the B.C. NDP government automatically froze all provincial student loan payments from March 30 to September 30.
But the Ontario NDP want to go even further to help post-secondary students feeling financially squeezed.
They’ve launched an online petition calling for pandemic-relief payments for those attending college and university.
The Ontario NDP wants the Doug Ford government to give $1,000 to all full-time students and $500 to all part-time students.
In addition, the party wants to ensure that there’s an exemption to prevent Ontario student-aid officials from clawing this back if the student is receiving either the Canada Emergency Student Benefit or Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB).
“Ultimately, we need to make Ontario’s public colleges and universities affordable again by converting loans to grants and eliminating interest on existing student loans,” the petition states.
Earlier this month, Ottawa outlined a plan to transition CERB recipients to the reformed EI system at the end of September. The feds plan to introduce the measures when parliament resumes on September 27.
This story originally appeared in the Georgia Straight.
