For the first thirty or so years of its existence, the CSLP changed little, and was rarely the subject of any political attention.  The annual loan maxima drifted gradually upwards from its initial $1,000 per year, but the only real innovations were the introduction of interest relief (the nucleus of today’s Repayment Assistance Program) in 1984, and a short-lived, ill-advised experiment in administrative cost-recovery in 1990 – during which the government levied a 3% fee on loans to pay for overhead, but which was withdrawn in the run-up to the 1993 federal election.

This stasis didn’t indicate widespread love for the program.  The Rowat-Hurtubise Report on “University, Society and Government” in 1970 recommended that the program be turned over to allow provinces to make their own, more coherent programs.  And in the mid-90s, after the Quebec referendum and Lloyd Axworthy’s 1994 Green Paper on student assistance – when the federal government became convinced student aid was a loser file that would never give them any credit – HRDC made discreet inquiries of the provinces about the possibility of withdrawing from the field.

What changed everything was the seemingly minor policy tweak of increasing the federal lending limit in 1994.  To reduce costs, the feds ended the long-standing formula where CSLP was responsible for 100% of need, up to $105 per week, and the provinces could decide to do whatever they wanted on top of that.  In its stead, the feds introduced a policy of covering 60% of every dollar of need, up to $165/week.  The corollary here was that provinces suddenly had to cover need from the very first dollar.  Coming at a time when government budgets were under huge pressure, the result was that most provinces radically reduced their grant programs, and replaced them with loans.  Cue a rapid rise in student debt, and subsequently (as I described back here) the arrival of a broad-based coalition to improve student aid.

The next few years saw almost annual changes in student aid.  CSLP first started issuing grants in 1994, but these were expanded in 1997 to include grants for students with dependents, and then again in 2005 when low-income grants were introduced.  Interest relief was made much more generous in 1998, and then expanded into the current RAP in 2005.  Tax credits were increased in 1996, 1997, 2000, and 2006.  Education savings grants were introduced in 1998, and then expanded again in 2004.

And, of course, there was the Millennium Scholarship Foundation.  The feds’ decision to create a whole new delivery vehicle for student aid was primarily motivated by the fact that: a) it was an accounting ruse to get rid of a one-year surplus over many years; and, b) it could do an end-run around CSLP’s opt-out clause, so that it could spend federal dollars in Quebec (if there was ever a politician who believed in the power of l’flag sur l’cheque, it was Chretien).  But it was also motivated by a view (in the Finance department and PMO ) that CSLP wasn’t up to much, policy-wise.  Ten years later, when the Foundation’s mandate was up for renewal, the PMO and Finance felt otherwise: the Foundation wasn’t renewed, and CSLP was suddenly managing a $600 million grant portfolio, in addition to its $1.5 billion in loans.

Since its inception, CSLP has lent $44 billion (in real dollars, it’s probably $100 billion or more), to roughly 5 million Canadians.  Few government programs have had as big an effect on the country’s economy, and few, if any, joint federal-provincial programs are run as smoothly.  It’s a Canadian success story – which of course means nobody recognizes it as such.  Even the government itself has chosen not to commemorate this 50th anniversary.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t raise a toast.  L’Chayim, CSLP.  And here’s to the next 50.