Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. I have with me, to my left, Mr. Dan Daniels, deputy minister of Education, Culture and Employment, and also Paul Devitt, director of Business and Strategic Services.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We are sponsoring Mr. Ramsay’s constituent he is referring to on a second year level training. We are talking about the third year that that particular program is also offered at the college campus in Fort Smith. Exact same programming compared to NAIT’s program. We have to keep in mind, Mr. Speaker, we have to support our own campuses as well here in the Northwest Territories. If we send any individuals out, we pay approximately $5,800 to NAIT for one student. We pay $650 to send them to Fort Smith. That is a substantial savings. That money should be going to our campuses...

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. My understanding is that as of the last fiscal year there is none at this point. Mahsi.

The intake, again, is for March at NAIT and three weeks later it’s at Fort Smith campus. So there is not much time difference. At the same time we’re not just talking about one student. We’re talking about other students that will be lining up at our door saying, pay for our institution down south. We don’t want to close down our facility in Fort Smith, Inuvik, or Yellowknife campus. That should be our first priority, supporting our campuses in the Northwest Territories.

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. The $400,000 has been debated in the House yesterday. Maybe we can make some points clear that we are on the record saying that the $400,000 will be going to the Food First Program or the breakfast program, the nutritious program, the snacks program that are currently being offered. Those may not have been addressed or fell through the cracks. We want to subsidize those programs. This $400,000 will go towards that.

We talk about the steering committee. I guess we need to stay away from that terminology where we just want to have a coordinator approach where it is identified...

I think there’s also a cost factor to keep in mind where we have students who are going to NAIT or other southern institutions that we pay well over $5,000 for one student. If you add let’s say 100 students in the Apprenticeship Program, that’s $580,000 going outside the Northwest Territories where that can be spent to our campuses in the Northwest Territories. We say we have 1,400 students going south. I’m sure it doesn’t cost us $5,800 for one student. There is a fee that we pay at the NAIT campuses, because they have their own NAIT institution act that they follow that we have to pay for a...

Mr. Chairman, we have already thought about those areas. It was brought up before. We are working with Human Resources on creating an incentive program where the student loans can be paid off immediately if they go to a community, more so in isolated communities. It has been brought up as well. Mr. Chairman, yes, we are exploring all avenues that we possibly can, to make it more attractive for those students to go back to our communities and pay off their loan as quick as possible. Mahsi.

The process I can certainly share with the Member in writing about the process itself, what kind of assistance is available to this individual. Due to the nature of the incident, we need to clarify that as well. Providing options of where this individual can certainly look at when it comes to options, I will commit to providing that information to the Member.

Mr. Chairman, this particular program is basic needs, food and shelter. If we go beyond food and shelter, where do we stop with that? Plus it’s just a subsidy program so we would prefer to spend on shelter and food for the families. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, we need to be aware of what kind of investigation it was. We don’t have any background in this area. If the Member can share that information, I can have my department look at it even closer, what kind of investigation was undertaken by whom and what kind of processes are available to that individual. We need that additional information before I speak to it. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.