Daryl Dolynny

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Committee, we’re on 8-32 and 8-33, activity summary, community programs, grants and contributions, $73.704 million. Does committee agree?

Thank you. I appreciate the Minister’s comments on that. The basic grant or the non-repayable benefit of the SFA has a wide range of thresholds. In some cases this threshold creates a disparity between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students who qualify for SFA funding.

Is this Minister committed in seeing that the disparity of thresholds are minimized for a more fair and transparent process? Thank you.

I appreciate the Minister committing to that. If I can get that for the last three fiscal years. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today many have spoken about creating some real solutions here on making the NWT a more attractive place to stay, and especially for our own future, and that future is our own students. Our NWT students are clearly not returning to the North, as we’ve heard, for a variety of reasons and I think it’s an important thing to bring forward here.

There are many questions as to why and where we should start to look at this issue. So for today we will start and I’d like to start with the Student Financial Assistance Program. My questions today are for the Minister of...

Mr. Chair, that’s not the answer to the question. I mean, if the Minister wants to share the terms of reference for the agreements, I’m happy to receive that, but the question still is asking about the aggregate accounting that we receive in terms of patient in-service billing and what we bill out for services. Would the Minister and department provide those numbers for review by committee? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. How do you follow that Member’s statement?

---Laughter

Mr. Speaker, in support of this government’s aggressive plan to increase our population base over the next couple of years, one must start to gaze into our future, and this future begins with our children, but more importantly those about to embark on their post-secondary education journey.

For years the Government of the Northwest Territories has praised its Student Financial Assistance Program as the key in supporting northern students’ return to the NWT upon the completion of their post-secondary education.

So one...

I’m hearing that we believe, but accounting is about accuracy of dollars and cents. Does the department have and do they table this information? Is it readily available for committee to review? Thank you.

With that one number that the Minister just gave of over $9 million as arrears, that exceeds the actual full main estimate in relation to some of that billing line, so are we to assume that the numbers we have here for reciprocal billing are lower than what we normally do on a regular rolling average? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

These are First Nations patients. These First Nations patients are entitled to Non-Insured Health Benefits, which is paid out by the Government of Canada through Non-Insured Health Benefits. So, whether or not we’re billing the territory of Nunavut, everything funnels back to our federal counterparts for the actual cheque. So, again, my question still stands. Have there been shortfalls and are those shortfalls embedded within the revenue summary on page 8-9? Thank you.

I believe – and the Minister might want to correct me if I’m wrong – page 8-37 is directly linked to this program line. The billing is going to Non-Insured Health Benefits, as far as I’m aware. I guess the question still stands. Have there been shortfalls? What have those shortfalls been with the billings that we’ve been doing with Nunavut patients versus what we’re getting in as revenue to cover those for those patients from Nunavut? Have there been historical shortfalls and are those shortfalls captured in these estimates? Thank you.