Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On November 4, 2010, this House recommended that eligibility for the Student Financial Assistance program be expanded to include students taking full-time secondary school upgrading programs in preparation for post-secondary education. I’m wondering if the Minister has incorporated that into the program for student financial assistance 2011-2012.
Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. That motion was brought to this House. It was a direction to our department to provide funding for upgrading. We currently don’t provide funding for upgrading, but we are working closely with the communities and there are other funding sources out there. We provide SFA, student financial assistance, for college and university programming.
I’d just like a little more explanation on the Minister’s comment there on how this motion is being addressed in programs.
With any motion that comes forward we look at it and see where it can fit within our programming. At the same time we, as it stands now, will be reviewing the SFA programming and that will happen this year. This is an area we can look at as an option. I’m sure we’ll be hearing from students out there from the communities. It has been brought up before in this House as well as at question period, so I’m sure there will be community members that will be raising those issues. It has been addressed and we’ll definitely look at it in due time.
I’m happy to hear that this will be included in the review of student financial assistance. I’m wondering if the Minister will commit to providing us with the other information he referred to, the other ways that this is being addressed through community programs.
We can provide programming information that we do have. Programs such as the Labour Market Agreement or other specific programming that we can highlight to the Members.
Page 10-28, Education, Culture and Employment, activity summary, income security, grants and contributions, grants, total grants, $9.240 million. Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to ask the Minister about the student grants for post-secondary education. Does the Minister have a sheet that he can give the Members showing how these grants are distributed to the northern students and which students, not which students names but how much is distributed each year?
Mr. Lafferty.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I don’t think we can provide names but we can provide which community they are from.
I really don’t need the names. I’m very happy if you can provide by region or community. I’ll be happy to get those. I also want to ask the Minister if under this item here, is the department administering the USEP program for college entry for Aboriginal students.
This is a particular program that falls under federal, the USEP program. We don’t deliver that.
Okay. Thank you.
Page 10-28, Education, Culture and Employment, activity summary, income security, grants and contributions, grants, total grants, $9.240 million.
Agreed.
Page 10-29, Education, Culture and Employment, activity summary, information item, income security, active positions.
Agreed.
Page 10-30, Education, Culture and Employment, information item, Student Loan Revolving Fund. Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wonder in looking at the numbers on this page, our loans receivable over the last three years has gone up almost $1 million a year. The loans granted have gone up I guess by about a hundred a year. In looking at these I just wonder whether or not this program is sustainable at the pace at which we are increasing. I know we increased the borrowing limit for the Student Financial Assistance Fund sometime in the last year or so. I guess bottom line is, will this be part of the student financial assistance review, and second question is, is this fund sustainable as we go forward?
Mr. Devitt.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, this will be part of the student financial assistance review and we do set aside an allowance each year. On that basis I would say that it’s sustainable, but as the Member pointed out, the fund is growing.
Page 10-30, Education, Culture and Employment, information item, Student Loan Revolving Fund.
Agreed.
Page 10-33, Education, Culture and Employment, information item, details of funding allocated to education authorities.
Agreed.
Page 10-34, Education, Culture and Employment, information item, education authorities, active positions.
Agreed.
Page 10-37, Education, Culture and Employment, information item, Aurora College funding allocations. Mr. Yakeleya.
Mr. Chairman, I want to ask the Minister about base funding. I think two of my communities in the Sahtu are not eligible or not receiving base funding at the Aurora College operations facilities. I want to ask the Minister if this is an oversight. Tulita, Deline, Fort Good Hope receive base funding. Norman Wells and Colville Lake do not receive base funding for Aurora College programs like the other communities. I wonder why this special treatment for Norman Wells and Colville Lake.
Mr. Daniels.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The college also tries to, where they might not have base money for programs, identify where they might be able to come up with other sources of funding to make program delivery available where they might not have a base amount for a particular community. So there might be some of the other contribution money that we provide to the college. For example, the Community Skills for Work Program or other program initiatives that are available in ALBE, for example.
It’s very disturbing to know that two communities in my riding have to look for alternative funding for what Tulita, Deline and Fort Good Hope receive base funding for. Two other communities that operate Arctic College programs have to look at alternative funding. Why can’t they receive base funding like any other community that receives base funding? Why the special treatment for the two communities?
Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. This is an area we should look at with the college. Why some communities aren’t getting base funding, we don’t really have that detailed information with us as to why. I’ll commit to the Member that we’ll look at this area and get back to him.
I appreciate the Minister committing to look at it. I’m hoping we can go one step further to make Norman Wells and Colville Lake communities that will receive base funding like any other college in my region and establish some base funding for those two centres. I appreciate the Minister’s commitment to poke his head in there and start digging around to find out what’s going on.
Mr. Lafferty, that’s a yes again. Okay. Next I have Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have just a couple of questions here. The first is in regard to programs that the college offers. The Minister will have heard questions and concerns raised by other Members in the House earlier about the nursing programs which the college offers. There’s a concern that federal funding is ending I think in March of 2012. The NP educator program, the masters program, and the Introduction to Advanced Practice I believe are all delivered through the college. I’d like to know from the Minister whether or not these programs are going to be able to continue. Is this federal funding sunsetting as I think I’ve been advised and, if so, what is the Minister doing about it?
Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. I think there was a commitment in the House to collaborate with health and education departments working together to identify what our options will be at that time.
Thanks to the Minister. I appreciate that there’s going to be some work done. The Minister said at that time, so does that mean that we’re going to wait until 2012 to do something or will there be some work that’s done in the near future and when can Members expect some kind of a report on these programs?
This was addressed in this House. There was ongoing discussion between the two departments. The discussion will continue to find what those options will be. As soon as we find a solution, we’ll definitely get back to the Members. I can’t really give you a specific date as to when, but as soon as we hear, that will be far more in advance than next year’s 2012.
Thanks to the Minister. It’s good to hear that we’re doing things now and not waiting. I have one other question and it relates to the space that the college currently occupies and the lease that they have and that the lease is ending. I think this has been mentioned maybe not this week but certainly over the last year, that the department has known that the lease for the college is going to be ending in a year or so. There were certainly some investigations done as to some potential sites for the college to move. About a year ago I think there was a possible solution and yet here we are a year later and there hasn’t been any action on any kind of proposal for a stand-alone campus here in Yellowknife. So I need to ask the Minister why it is that we spent a year basically running in place and not taking any action towards replacing the current location for the college with a new one. Thank you.
Since last year, we went through some options and we shared that with the Members and with the various school boards as well. Those options have been pushed forward, but there are other pressing matters that are before us as well within the GNWT. We are not giving up on this. We are also continuing to examine this through our next capital planning process. So this is geared for next year because the lease is expiring next year, so we need to plan. We have been planning this fall for an extension. So we will be exploring those areas for the next capital planning process, Mr. Chair. Mahsi.
Next I have Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a similar question related to the Aurora College campus here in Yellowknife and a stand-alone campus. Has there been any assessment done on potential savings in the long run for actually having a stand-alone facility as opposed to renting the several buildings in Yellowknife we do to act as a campus? Specifically I’m interested in finding out if we can maximize our dollars by actually having a stand-alone facility over the long term and focus more money in programming rather than excessive rents.
Minister of Education.
Mahsi, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I did highlight that we need to plan for next year’s capital planning process and this will be part of the process. Mahsi.
Okay. For the record, obviously I think a stand-alone campus in Yellowknife is important. I think it will save us money and I look forward to seeing any planning that’s done in the future. It would be nice if we had a little bit more data now. This has certainly been something that’s been on the conversation block for a long time. If there is no answer there, I’ll just go to the next question.
The Social Work Program at Aurora College, it’s a diploma program and we’ve got links to a southern university where people from here can then go down there to complete their degree. Has there been much thought or any thought about changing the program in the Northwest Territories so that it’s a social work degree program, so that we can keep our students in the North for the duration, the completion of their degree?
When I recognized those social work students in the gallery, I did have the opportunity to meet with them out in the foyer as well. This is an area we are all working with the college and with southern institutions that currently deliver diploma programs and also degree programs. Some students, of course, told us that they don’t want to leave the community. They want to finish their degree here in the Northwest Territories. I did share that with the Board of Governors of the college and also the president. Mr. Chair, this is a discussion that we’ve had and we will continue to move that forward. Mahsi.
