For better eats, try Save-on-Meats
Downtown diner dishes up something delicious

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By Jacey Gibb, Opinions Editor

T= first time a person hears the
name Save-on-Meats is always
‘the same, full of chuckles and
a general sense of being repulsed. But
if people would only give the recently
renovated and reinvigorated historic
building downtown a try, they might
learn that Save-on-Meats can actually
pack a fair bit of magic.
Easily identifiable
by the iconic neon
pig sign, you can find
Save-on-Meats on East
Hastings, right next to
the bottle depot. While
the area surrounding the restaurant may
not be the most desirable of locations,
the inside decor is a harmonious mixture
of new meets retro. Booths line the
entire right wall while a cornucopia of
stools offers convenient seating at the
bar to the left. Luckily my associate
and I arrived at a time when free booths
weren’t a rarity and we were able to
slide comfortably in without waiting.
The server was friendly and seemed
savvy with the menu, which offered the
usual range from traditional breakfasts

Student debt hurts entire economy

Years of debt repayment stalls full entry into economy by graduates

By Denis Luchyshyn — The Martlet
(University of Victoria)

row many young adults between
H: ages of 18 and 23 do you know
who have an extra $50,000 kicking
around in their bank accounts? As a young
adult myself, 1 would say almost none.

But the problem isn’t the lack of
money; it’s that this number represents the
horrendous price tag on a post-secondary
degree in Canada. In addition, more and -
more employers are closing their doors to

_ people without post-secondary education.
This leaves the average high-school
graduate with one option: Take out a student
loan, become one of the millions to hold a
bachelor’s degree and then spend the better
part of your adult life repaying your debt.

Education in Canada should be a
right, not a lifetime debt sentence. We need
to increase funding for post-secondary
education now, because this growing debt
affects everyone, not just those in school.

To understand the weight of this
problem, you have to know where the
$50,000 goes. Half is spent on tuition,
books and all sorts of other charges. For
a single semester of approximately four
months with a course load of five classes,
a student is expected to shell out about
$3,000. The average BA takes eight
semesters to complete. Therefore, your

typical student will leave university having
spent up to $24,000 in school fees alone.

Who in their right mind would live
at home with their parents and pass up
on the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of
experiencing the “university life” we see
on TV? So on top of the ‘overpriced cost of
education, let’s add the expenses of housing
and groceries that a freedom-seeking young
adult encounters. With rent constantly going
up, I was lucky to find a clean home I share
with a roommate. We each pay $625 per
month. Depending on where you live, a
price like this for a two-bedroom basement
suite is a bargain.

Add groceries at an average of $200
per month and you’re looking at living costs
of approximately $2,500 in rent and $800 in
food totalling $3,300 per semester.

So if mommy and daddy aren’t
rolling around in disposable income,
the only solution is to take out a student
loan. According to Statistics Canada, the

to steak and potatoes. My goal for the
visit was to consume the greasiest thing
on the menu and I selected the breakfast
poutine (basically regular poutine with
a fried egg on top) as my victim, but
unfortunately we had arrived past the
time of breakfast. I ended up ordering

a slab of ribs, which was a generous
portion for only $11, and ventured into
the sweet tooth section of the menu by
also ordering the Knickerbocker Glory

“The ribs were filling and flavourful, though could have been
served warmer, and the biscuit that came on the side was moist
enough that it didn’t even need butter.”

($6), a sundae variant that comfortably
fed two. The ribs were filling and
flavourful, though could have been
served warmer, and the biscuit that
came on the side was moist enough that
it didn’t even need butter. My dining
companion ordered the bangers and
mash ($9) which resulted in a mound
of food that was unconquerable for her
stomach size, which is a technically a
good thing if you’re going for value.
Overall, the meal was more than
satisfying and left me anxious for the

percentage of students graduating with a
student loan has risen from 49 per cent

in 1995 to well over half at 57 per cent in
2005.

Consider how long this kind of loan
will take to repay. At an average interest
rate of 4.5 per cent, and payments of $300
per month, a $50,000 loan will take over
21 years to repay. Students come out of
university shouldering a weighty debt.

Sadly, this “investment” doesn’t even
guarantee a career in your field of study.
Is this financial burden the kind of
future you want to bestow on your own
kids — the same ones who will one day be
paying your pension or deciding whether
to place you in a retirement home or not?
More importantly, these are the future
consumers who will inherit the power
over this country’s economy. If they are
crippled with debt, who is going to sustain

future to see what other gems lay hidden
on the menu.

When the time came to pay the bill,
I knew I couldn’t leave without inquiring
about the bacon cookies I had heard so
much about. With my luck there was
a jar full of the bacon and chocolate
chip variety and I quickly scooped one
up. Against better judgement, and the
begging of my max capacity stomach,

I began to gobble the goodie down and
was slightly
disappointed. As
a normal cookie,
it filled all of the
requirements

for flavour
comfortably, but there was a noticeable
lack of anyone reminiscent of bacon. It
was only after I had polished the cookie
off and was toying with the remaining
crumbs in my mouth that I bit down on
a speck of bacon and was treated to the
taste of it.

While the prices weren’t as low as I
first thought I would find in a downtown
Eastside restaurant, the food was
definitely worthy enough to warrant a
future visit. Who knew a restaurant with
a pig sign could pack so much punch!

the consumerist behaviour that is the
underlying cause of the wealth we all enjoy
as Canadian citizens?

Take action today, and voice your
opinion. Let your politicians know that
you want more funding for post-secondary
education. Let’s see a reduction in debt and
school fees as well as an increase in grants
and scholarships. This is not a cost; it is an
investment in the present and the future for
all..

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