Mr. Speaker, in my Member’s statement I spoke to the removal of students who are planning to come back to the Northwest Territories to do their return of service — and they do it gladly.
I would like to direct my questions today to the Minister of ECE. I’d like to ask the Minister of ECE: what’s the department’s policy on student removal once they’ve completed university or college?
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Throughout Canada our SFA program is one of the most successful, generous programs that we have, and it continues to be so.
With respect to the students who are returning, it’s always been our goal to have those students return to our Northwest Territories or even to our communities to work for our government or community governments.
For the removal program that the Member is referring to, we do offer trips to the destination of students’ studies or the institution where they are studying. We cover their cost of travelling either by air or by vehicle. Most of the time students travel by vehicle, so they can take all their belongings there and back. So those are the areas that we cover. We also cover the basic, essential needs of the students that are living in the institution, whether it be residence or their household. Mahsi.
I have never been one to question the generosity of our Student Financial Assistance. I have stood up here many times and praised it as being the best in the country, so that’s not the issue here. The issue here is: do we have a policy to pay for students’ removal back to the North?
Mr. Speaker, specific to the policy itself we currently do not have a policy on the removal of the students, but we do cover their travel to their destination and back. So that’s what we offer. We offer other subsidies within our department for students’ needs. That’s what we offer through Student Financial Assistance for the Northwest Territories. Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, when you first go to university, chances are you’re going to be flying out with probably a couple of suitcases. After four years you’re going to have gathered a lot of belongings, and you’re going to want to bring those home. Otherwise, you have to buy them up here. Where are they going to ship them from? They’re going to ship them from the same place they just left, so it just doesn’t make any sense.
Will the Minister commit to having his department implement a policy to pay for student removal beyond the airfare and that? I mean, that is all fine; that’s part of Student Financial Assistance program. But would he commit to developing or implementing a policy that would pay for student removal after their time at the university or college?
Like I said before, most of the students travel down south, and they do find accommodation, apartments or residence. Most of the time it is also furnished, so they don’t really necessarily have to buy furniture. But there are times when students buy furniture, and then they sell after three or four years, after their program of studies. If we look at the number of students that we currently subsidize through the SFA program, we have over 1,400 students. Just doing the mathematics, it will be over several million if we want to implement a policy. So we have to keep that in mind as well.
So, again, we do offer various subsidies, whether it be through the Income Support program or the Student Financial Assistance program. We offer a generous package to the students for them to complete their programs and come back to the North. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just from the tone of the discussion here I get the impression that, no, there is not a policy; no, we are not going to implement a policy. Even though the students could sell their furnishings, there are still a small few, after successful completion of university, who want to bring their belongings back.
That should be my question. Why is the department reluctant — other than quoting millions of dollars, which I don’t think it’s going to cost to begin with — to implement a policy for student removal?
We are going through a process here, of course, the business planning and certainly those ongoing discussions. There are always changes that happen. There have been some recent changes to benefit the community for students’ needs. I will certainly take the Member’s comments into consideration when we are drafting changes to our policies. We will work with what’s presented to us, so we will certainly take that into consideration. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
