Thank you, Madam Chair. The department, in its action plan related to the response to the office of the Auditor General’s audit on the Income Security Program, made a number of commitments with regard to automating the system, the reporting system for student loans, so to identify when a loan becomes due.

Previous to this there was a very manual process that was used. The request for the increase for the $5 million is not in relation to the collection or default of collection files. It is in fact related to the fact that we have recently increased our remissible loan rates, which means that we have more funds that are being disbursed to our post-secondary students while they are attending studies. As a result, we requested an increase in the amount of funds that are available under the revolving loan limit.