Debates of October 21, 2005 (day 15)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to speak on the administration of the Student Financial Assistance program. Although I believe that the SFA in the NWT is one of, if not the best in Canada, there are still some problems with the administration of the program. Inuvik, Hay River, Norman Wells and Fort Smith are some of the larger regional centres in the NWT outside of Yellowknife, yet there are no offices in these communities that have decision-making authority. Everything has to go through an office in Yellowknife that is far removed from the regions.

Mr. Speaker, just to give you an example of what I am speaking about, I have a constituent who went to school in Fort Smith, and he was transferring to Edmonton. He had verbal approval to bring his truck and his belongings down, and they would pay his way home. He gets down to Edmonton, and he gets told that they are not going to pay his way home, because it wasn’t where he was going to school. It cost $128 less to go from Edmonton to Inuvik than it would from Fort Smith to Inuvik.

I just think, Mr. Speaker, if we had regional staff who had a chance to know their clients, and they were empowered to make decisions in these kinds of cases, we might get more sensible results. Even the student financial assistance board, Mr. Speaker, has no members from outside of Yellowknife. Is Yellowknife the only community in the NWT with the college? Mr. Speaker, I am not here to knock Yellowknife, but too many decisions made for the rest of the NWT are done here, and they should be at the regions. We should have regional offices that have the authority to make decisions that are affecting these students.

Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time, I will have questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Thank you.

---Applause