OTTAWA—The Conservative government has been quietly telling itself that when it comes to student debt, things are not as bad as many Canadians believe.

“A narrative has been emerging that student debt in Canada is a growing concern and may be unsustainable,” says a presentation prepared for the minister of Employment and Social Development Canada in November 2014, who at that time was Jason Kenney.

The internal presentation obtained by the Star through an access-to-information request said the fact that tuition is rising above the rate of inflation in many parts of Canada and that some stakeholders have been very vocal with their concerns have contributed to this public perception.

So have worrisome stories about the situation in the United States, where total student debt has reached $1 trillion, the presentation says.

“Overall, despite mounting attention to the issue, debt levels appear to be manageable for the vast majority of Canadian students,” says the presentation prepared for Kenney by the learning branch of the department.

It credits nonrepayable grants, federal repayment assistance plans and increased savings with keeping average debt levels “largely stable.”

The officials who prepared the presentation built their case largely using statistics from a variety of sources, including administrative data for the federally run Canada Student Loans program.

The presentation says the average federal portion of student loan debt for university students, which can be up to 60 per cent of a financial aid package offered to students applying for assistance, was $15,548 in 2012-13, which is down roughly 10 per cent from 2009-10.

It also says the percentage of federal borrowers who graduated with more than $30,000 in debt declined to seven per cent in 2012-13, from 10 per cent in 2009-10.

Those who have been ringing alarm bells about student debt remain unconvinced by the government’s perspective as laid out in the briefing materials.

“We’ve seen a really big increase in public dialogue around what people might term a lost generation: students who are paying high tuition fees, saddled with lots of debt, unable to buy house, unpaid internships, a bad job market,” said Alastair Woods, chair of the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario.

“I think that many governments are trying to find a way to combat this narrative, because it reflects poorly on their management of the economy, on their priorities,” Woods said.

Kenney, who is now defence minister, declined to comment.

The current minister of employment and social development, Pierre Poilievre, was unavailable for an interview.

Dan Harris, the NDP critic for post-secondary education, noted the federal government is writing off uncollected debt from the Canada Student Loans program every year — $295 million in fiscal year 2014-15, according to the supplementary estimates — and that the total level of debt has not decreased.

“It means that debt is actually being held by a smaller number of people, which means they are going further into debt,” Harris said.

Critics also point out the data coming from federal sources like the Canada Student Loans program can only provide a partial picture.

“One thing that we don’t count very well is private debt,” said David Robinson, executive director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers.

The presentation note also highlights the measures the federal government put in place to help parents save for the post-secondary education of their children, including Registered Education Savings Plans (RESPs).

Both Woods and Robinson pointed out the savings plans only help families who can afford to contribute to them.

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The presentation does warn that clouds could be on the horizon.

“This is an issue that demands continued attention. Debt level is expected to rise moderately as educational costs continue to grow faster than inflation. As the economy remains weaker than it was in the early 2000s, the capacity of graduates to repay their loans quickly has likely diminished,” the presentation concludes.

Employment ministry spokesman Simon Rivest said the department prepared the presentation “to brief (Kenney) on current and future trends related to student debt in Canada” in the fall of 2013, a few months after he came to the portfolio, and updated it last November.

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