Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. With the Emerging Wisely document, post-secondary is not recommended to begin in the fall, and there are a lot of post-secondary students who are hoping to continue or pursue their post-secondary this fall. Will there be programming in September, and what will it look like this fall for post-secondary in the college?
Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the Emerging Wisely document, I believe it is phase 3 that the colleges can open. What the college has been planning for is for distance learning, come September. However, we don't know exactly where we're going to be, and we would like to be able to provide some in-person instruction for people who absolutely need it. The work is ongoing to try to figure out if we can do that, but the plan right now is distance learning for the most part. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
With the way the economy is right now, a lot of our students have no jobs. Some of them offset the cost of their post-secondary with these jobs. The federal funding is not a lot of money compared to what summer students would normally make. Will SFA be increasing the funding this year for those students to be able to afford their post-secondary?
The Member is absolutely correct. With the lack of summer employment, it is going to make it very difficult for summer students. As well, some of their parents, too, maybe have lost their jobs. It's going to make a very tough situation.
The federal government has announced increases to the Canada Student Loans Program. The Northwest Territories opted out of the Canada Student Loans Program back in the '80s, I believe, in order to create our own program tailored to Northerners. It is more generous to Northerners, but, as a result, we don't get that increase that the Canada Student Loans Program will get. However, the government did commit an increase to those who have opted out of the program, so we will be seeing an increase. The way it works is that the territory gets the student loan money based on how many students went to school. For the upcoming school year, we will receive that money in January of 2022. There is a bit of a lag there. With that being said, I am looking at ways that we can bridge that gap and figure out how to support students, because this is a serious issue that is going to affect a lot of people's lives.
Student housing, for some, is their main housing. Will the students be able to continue to live in the student housing even with distance learning?
The Member is hitting all of the high points here. These are a lot of hard conversations that we are having. There are some people who are from communities where, perhaps, the Internet doesn't allow them to take distance learning. I got an email from someone the other day saying that they max out at 2.3 megabits per second on their Internet speed; they need 2.5 in order to take the program at the U of A. There are some real issues out there. We are looking at how we can support those students. Opening up residence for people is one of those, but that is an ongoing conversation. There are a lot of considerations, but these are exceptional circumstances, and we need to do everything we can to ensure that this is not a lost year for the students who wish to pursue post-secondary.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With that, if the Inuvik single-unit student housing is being occupied, something that is very needed in Inuvik, as well as the homeless shelter right now, how will -- I guess there are three Ministers, there; there's homelessness, health, and education -- work together to ensure that single students can get housing, that this program continues? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I can't speak for all of the other Ministers involved, but the Member points out one of the big issues here. This is not just a student housing issue; there is a homelessness issue; there is a vulnerable persons issue. There are all sorts of things going on here, and so we all have to work together. Those conversations are happening.
I don't have an answer right now. This situation is evolving, but I know that we are working to find solutions to all of those issues. As many Members have rightly pointed out today, we have seen some great strides in terms of the social supports we offer, and we don't want to backslide on that, but we have to make sure that, if we have housing for students, or if we have these certain things designated for these certain needs, they are used for those. I don't have an answer, but I will work with my colleagues to try to find a solution to all of those issues. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
