The Cadre * 6 October 1998

National News 5

Tobacco sponsorship Students denied banruptcy protection for 10 years

cut over the next five yer

(continued from

David Dingwel Sees Federal Minister of Health, com- mented as he gave a second reading of the Tobacco Act amendments to the House in December of 1996.

“Through association with people, objects, events and ideas, [tobacco] promotion creates a brand identity or image that influences and shapes the attitudes and beliefs and behav- iours of consumers and potential consumers,” he said.

However, reaction is not completely in favour of these proposals and approaching legislation.

“Youcan’treally look at it from one point for view; there’s a good side and a bad side to it,” one second year Arts student commented.

News Ed. Note: Next week, thel focus will be on the more

ative reaction surrounding this issue, as well as a deeper look at how these changes might affect Prince Edward Island -- and UP El.

Two web pages to inspect for more information:

Health Canada: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ehp/ehd/tobacco/ legislat/index.htm

No Patsy - (an anti-tobacco page) : http://www.healthwatch.org/ tobaccowars.html

BY MELISSA DOUCETTE

Eightthousand students declare bankruptcy every year, most of whom are under 30 years of age.

Soaring tuition, chroni- cally high youth unemployment, and cuts to education all point to an increase in this number.

Or do they?

Recent changes to the Bankruptcy Insolvency Act (BIA) came into effect on June 18, 1998. Now, students are prohibited from discharging student loan debts for a period of ten years after leaving their studies.

Unlike most motions, this amendment was not brought up separately and given three readings and de- bates.

Instead, it was buried in the Federal Budget —the “edu- cation” budget — recently ta- bled in February 1998. This amendment only applies to stu- dent loans, and all other per- sonal debt remains untouched.

The benefit of this change has been questioned by many community and stu- dent groups, including the Ca- nadian Federation of Students (CFS). They claim that bank- ruptcy is a last resort proce- dure, and not one that is taken lightly

Bankruptcy is costly (minimum of $1600), takes at least nine months to process, and is not confidential.

People who have the financial means to pay credi- tors are legally obtigeted iodo so, making bankruptcy avail- able only to those in dire finan-

cial straits. Those filing for

bankruptcy are subject to sev- eral conditions, including noti- fying all creditors, selling all assets to aid in debt repay- ment, and assigning a trustee to control all assets.

In addition, a record of

bankruptcy is kept by credit bureaus for six years for the first offence, and permanently if filed for more than once.

Underthe new BIA, stu- dents filing for bankruptcy can only receive it for debts ac- crued outside of student loans. Any portion of the student loan debt left after ten years that cannot be met may require a second application for bank- ruptcy, giving the student a permanently bad credit rating.

Through this new legis- lation, the government intends to cut down on what it consid- ers to be ahigh default level of student loans.

“Changes were .. . made to the bankruptcy laws, sothat the comparatively high level of claims because of de- faulted student loans would be reduced,” stated Pierre Pettigrew. Minister of Human

Resources, in his August 24 letter to The Guardian.

In conjunction with this goal of reducing default rates, the Federal government is also imposing accessibility restric- tions to student loans.

As of August |, 1999, students can be denied a stu- dent loan if they are 22 years of age or older. Missing any loan payment (ninety or more days) three years prior to ap- plying fora student loan is also grounds for denial.

These last restrictions are intended to prevent poten- tial defaulters from obtaining student loans. However, Hu- man Resources Development Canada does acknowledge that student loan default rates do not reflect loan delinquencies of students in a public post- secondary institution.

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