New Brunswick Green party offers plan to address heavy student debt loads

FREDERICTON – New Brunswick’s Green party is pledging to help ease the debts of university and college students if the Greens form government.

Leader David Coon says New Brunswick graduates carry student debts that are 50 per cent higher than the national average.

He says that debt load is preventing graduates from accessing capital to buy homes, start businesses.

Coon says his party commits to the long-term goal of universal, free tuition in the province’s post-secondary institutions.

He says they would also eliminate interest on provincial student loans, as has been done in neighbouring Nova Scotia.

Coon says a Green government would also reinstate the tuition rebate program for recent graduates.