A Newfoundland comedian living in Alberta is astonished that her home province is suing her for owing less than $400 on her student loans.

"My mind is blown. Are they that hard up now for money in Newfoundland that the government is suing people for these small amounts?" Lisa Baker told the St. John's Morning Show.

Baker recently got an early morning phone call that she assumed was a wrong number or someone trying to swindle her out of some money.

Baker said she's heard of others from Newfoundland and Labrador who are being tracked down for small amounts of money owed on student loans, often from many years ago. (CBC)

"There was this woman saying that I owed the Newfoundland government $371 and change," she said.

"I thought it was a scam. I ended up hanging up on her, and I wasn't very nice about it either. I was pretty rude."

In a statement to CBC, the government of Newfoundland and Labrador said the province collects on defaulted student loans through the Student Loan Corporation, after taking over loan collection from the Canada Revenue Agency last year.

A loan is considered to be in default following a period of 270 days following unsuccessful attempts to reach the payee or make payment arrangements.

"Since taking over the collection, the province has been contacting individuals in default in an effort to establish payment arrangements. Legal action can also be taken on accounts where debtors are non-compliant," the statement said.

From phone call to sue notice

What really upset Baker was when the woman told her that they had checked her credit score and found out she was living in Alberta.

It's like they're going through the books … saying, 'Who owes us money?' - Lisa Baker

Baker said she hasn't changed her phone number or email in years so she feels there's no need of them to have run her credit just to track her down.

The woman accused her of trying to "hide" from government and told her she needed to go to a bank and transfer the $371 to the their account, which Baker refused to do before hanging up.

Then a few weeks later she got a package in the mail.

"I never thought anything of it and then I gets paperwork files from the Supreme Court of Newfoundland telling me I have 30 days to respond and I'm being sued for $371," Baker said,

"When I opened it was floored, I couldn't believe it."

Baker wants to know why the province didn't bill her instead of calling her early in the morning asking for money and then acting to sue her. (CBC)

Baker considered not paying the money, but thought she simply couldn't afford any legal battle that would come up. She phoned back and agreed to pay, but still doesn't understand why the government couldn't have just billed her first instead of the aggressive phone call and then the threat to sue.

"I'm not saying I don't owe it, and I paid it, before people start going off the head and sending me Facebook messages," she said.

"I paid a bill that I don't even know what it's for. Like I know it's for a student loan or something with the Newfoundland government."

Other cases

Since the ordeal, Baker has posted about the phone call and letter on Facebook, and said people share her outrage and others even contacted her saying the same thing happened to them. She has a friend in British Columbia who received a letter about $20 she owed for nearly two decades.

Baker feels $371 is not a sum of money that should warrant a threat to be sued. (Britainy Robinson/CBC)

When she asked why she hadn't been contacted before now, Baker was told the debt had been handed over to the Canada Revenue Agency but that they hadn't collected it, so the province once again took on the responsibility of tracking down the owed money.

Who owes us money

Baker thinks government should be smart enough to know that calling people that early in the morning about owed money is going to sound like a scam.

"In this day of age of scams I don't know how they don't anticipate this type of reaction to them calling people at seven in the morning asking them for money," she said.

"It's like they're going through the books, almost out of desperation, saying, 'Who owes us money?'"

Read more articles from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador