KITCHENER -- A list of Canadian universities with the most registered student "sugar babies" features three area schools.
A list published by Seeking Arrangement has Laurier as the fifth school with 459 registered student members, University of Guelph at 11 with 396 and University of Waterloo at 13 with 312.
The numbers are gathered based on accounts registered to the site with student email addresses.
The service is described as primarily for young women who are financially pampered by "sugar daddies" in exchange for companionship and negotiable sexual favours.
Kimberly De La Cruz, the head of public relations for Seeking Arrangement, says sugar-dating is unlike prostitution or escorting, but admits sexual relations can develop like on any other dating sites.
"It’s overwhelming [for students to be] working two jobs and also be in school at the same time," said De La Cruz.
"By dating someone who can alleviate the financial stress you can focus on your studies."
The average sugar baby will receive a monthly allowance of $3,000, but that number can be higher or lower depending on the arrangement.
According to Statistics Canada, university graduates are carrying more than $26,000 in student debt.
"We saw most students seeing less money coming in grants and loans," said Matthew Gerrits, vice president of education for Waterloo Undergraduate Student Association.
"Debt is something no one wants to graduate with. School is expensive and I know that people do a lot of things to make ends meet."
One student tells CTV Kitchener that plenty of their peers need to borrow money from parents, friends, and forego food to get through school.
"You don’t have to have student debt," said De La Cruz.
"When you’re graduating you can just go into your career and you can have the confidence that you’re not worried about debt occurring during the last four years."
Seeking Arrangement says Canada has the third largest population in the world of people who are sugar-dating.
