LIFELONG LEARNING: People of all ages should have access to education

Excerpt from the House of Commons

Lifelong learning opportunities is a very nice term that sometimes masks the problem many workers have in going back to school or retraining later in life when trying to secure employment after a layoff or downsizing in our changing economy. Making more loans available to our youth to become more indebted without addressing the rising costs of tuition for post-secondary education is not a solution to providing affordable and accessible education for our youth. More loans are also not a solution for retraining and education for many older persons, who must undertake this for the purpose of work retraining or other self-development later in life.

Many Canadians in their forties and fifties are forced to seek student loans to access education and training. This means that more and more people approaching retirement or in retirement are accumulating student debt. It is difficult enough to live on fixed incomes. It is even more difficult when one has an OSAP payment to make.

Yet what does the Conservative government make available to people who are seeking education and retraining opportunities to better themselves and contribute to our economy? More loans, but no tuition reduction.

Education is not the right of youth alone. Affordable education must be for Canadians of all ages. With this motion, the NDP seeks to enshrine seniors' rights to lifelong access to education and retraining as part of a larger effort on ensuring access to affordable education.