Providing support for students this summer

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/05/2020 (1116 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Normally, at this time of year, students are looking forward to getting valuable job experiences over the summer.

Even though our economy has started reopening, there is still a large amount of uncertainty. Our government has taken steps to try to ease the anxiety for students who depend on summer jobs for much needed income to pay for post-secondary education and to get valuable work experience for their future careers.

These significant new supports for young Canadians and recent graduates include:

• the new Canada Emergency Student Benefit (CESB), providing $1,250 per month from May through August for eligible students, and $2,000 for students with dependents or permanent disabilities;

• the new Canada Student Service Grant (CSSG), providing up to $5,000 for a student’s education to students who choose to serve their communities, allowing students to give back to their communities in a time of incredible need;

• improvements to the Canada Summer Jobs program, making it more flexible to respond to the needs of communities during this pandemic;

• expanded federal employment, skills development and youth programming, creating up to 116,000 jobs, placements, and other training opportunities;

In order to ensure that post-secondary students are confidently able to continue their studies in the fall, we are also boosting tuition supports by proposing to:

• double the Canada Students Grants Program;

• broaden the eligibility for Student Financial Assistance;

• enhance the Canada Student Loans Program;

• increase support for Indigenous Post-Secondary Education; and

• extend expiring federal graduate research scholarships and postdoctoral fellowships as well as federal research grants.

These significant investments are important to not only support young Canadians through this crisis, but also to position Canada to come out strong post-pandemic.

If you have questions about any of the measures announced above and in Canada’s Emergency Response Plan, please visit canada.ca/coronavirus or contact my office by calling 204-983-3183 or emailing dan.vandal@parl.gc.ca

Wishing you and your loved ones continued health and safety.

Dan Vandal
Saint Boniface-Saint Vital constituency report

Dan Vandal is the Liberal MP for Saint Boniface-Saint Vital.

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