Agreed.
Thank you. There are additional information items on page 58 through 64. Did the Minister wish to switch out witnesses?
Thank you, Madam Chair. And for the record, it's been Mr. Michael Saturnino who's been here, and I'd like to switch him out for Mr. Sam Shannon. Thank you.
Thank you. SergeantatArms, can you please escort the witness out and the new witness in.
Welcome back, Mr. Shannon.
All right, Members, we're at the end of the Education, Culture and Employment section. And there are information items, as I mentioned, from page 54 to 64. Does any Members have any questions in regards to any of those information items? Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. On page 58 is the Students Loan Fund, and, you know, I guess I'd like to ask during the COVID pandemic of the last couple years, I had heard that some students lost, you know, a year or two of education or started, you know, maybe classes in person and then when they switched to virtual, that didn't really meet their learning needs.
What, if any, flexibility or extension to, you know, student eligibility periods or anything like that has been or were loan payments put on pause or whatever; what accommodation was made during the pandemic with regard to the student financial assistance? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister of ECE.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So in the early days of the pandemic, yes, student loan payments were put on repayments were put on pause. Students were continued to be funded even if they had you know, there was issues with their courses because of school shutting down in early 2020. So there have been steps like that taken. In this last fiscal year, though, I don't believe there have been any additional measures such as that. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. And thanks to the Minister for that. As I understand it, students have sort of a period of time in which they are eligible once they start a program. Is the Minister willing to look at providing some flexibility in terms of eligibility for students if they lost a year or two during COVID? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister of ECE.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And there is some flexibility already built into the program but like I said, there's students every year who start attending postsecondary and for one reason or another, it doesn't work out; it's not for them. Perhaps it's mental health issues. Perhaps it's, you know, family tragedies. There's a number of reasons why students don't make it through a school year. And we don't have exceptions in, you know, the majority of cases although there are some exceptions. And this is, you know, in the we don't want to start making exceptions for students who, I guess, knew that, you know, there was a possibility that things could go online. You know, a lot of cases people knew what they were getting in for. I don't want to sound, you know, discompassionate, but we are not looking at making any sort of taking any of the measures the Member's speaking of. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Hay River Frame Lake.
Thanks. I love Hay River but I'm from Yellowknife but thanks, Madam Chair.
Can the Minister tell us whether any jurisdictions in Canada have looked at providing some flexibility in terms of student eligibility for financial assistance, given COVID, postsecondary education students? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister of ECE.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We shouldn't have sent Mr. Saturnino away. I don't have that information. We can provide some information back to the Member, though. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.
Yeah, okay, thanks, Madam Chair, and thanks to the Minister for that. So can the Minister just not having been a postsecondary education or a student for many years, what is the process of somebody who needs or wants to get an exception or extra consideration? Do they write to their, you know, their SFA officer and get some sort of waiver, or how does that process actually work? And, yeah, thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister of ECE.
Thank you. So most exceptions are really tied to medical issues, so if a student has a medical issue. And they would call their SFA, the SFA officer or their SFA contact person, that would be the first point of contact. And if the Member would like, we can provide information on, you know, what that process might look like. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.
Yeah, thanks, Madam Chair. Yeah, I'd like to get that information from the Minister. I think several of or some other MLAs would be interested in getting that as well.
And while the Minister's putting that together, could he also put together statistics in terms of how many were granted or how many were rejected for the last couple of years? I just would like to get a sense of that, because if there are a number of students that have and if that, you know, we have an increasing number over the last couple of years and more of them are getting rejected, that's grounds for changing the eligibility requirements or providing for some better way of recognizing the stress that COVID has put on our postsecondary education students. So can he compile those statistics preCOVID, maybe a year or two, and then during the pandemic and provide those as well? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister of ECE.
Thank you. So there's a lot of work going on right now with the SFA program review. I think it I mean, ideally, it would be great if we could compile that as part of the program review and then we could put our efforts towards that, if that's the information that's being requested, we can, you know, redirect staff efforts towards that and see what we can put together. But I'm not sure that the Member's going to get an accurate view perhaps of what he's looking for. If someone calls their SFA officer and, you know, has a conversation about, you know, wanting to, you know, not have to pay back their SFA because of some issues and it's clearly not something that is within the regulations or within the ability of the officer, I'm not sure if there's a process to, you know, log that and track that. So we can see what we can do but I'm not sure it's going to be everything the Member hopes it will be. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. And not knowing enough about the system and how it works and whether statistics are tracked or not, I'm happy to get whatever the Minister can provide and then we'll go from there. Thanks.
Thank you. Any further questions? No? Okay. Are there any further questions on the information items? Member for Thebacha.
I just have a couple of short questions, Madam Chair. On page 58, what is the northern bonus? I'd like the Minister to answer that. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of ECE.
Thank you. The northern bonus is funds that are provided to students who return back to the Northwest Territories who have repayable loans, and I believe it depends on where you live, you are eligible for different amounts each year. I believe that comes into effect I know that if you live in Hay River, you can get $2,000 a year up to a maximum of $10,000. Thank you. And that goes towards repayment of your loan. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Thebacha.
My second question is on page 59, the South Slave Divisional Education Council, I see that there's a decrease of $143,000. Was there a program that was let go, or how did they come to that figure? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of ECE.
Thank you. So these numbers are based on the funding formula, our best estimates on the funding formula. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Thebacha.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So it's based on a formula. So the formula is based on programs, or is it based on per capita?
Thank you. Minister of ECE.
Thank you, and I apologize, I realize how inadequate my answer was as soon as I said it.
So the funding formula takes into account many things but the biggest driver is enrolment. And so generally, the more students you have the more money you get. The less students you have, the less money you get. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Thebacha.
That is a bit concerning because the statistics that came out, we had about 11 percent, 294 people that decreased in our population count in the community of Fort Smith. And, you know, I'm always much about education and I want to ensure that the level of funds in education is and the programs for the students are there. You know, there's lots of things happened during this pandemic, and this just happened in the last couple years. I know things will pick up in the next little while. But that shouldn't be a deterrent to ensure that the programs and the education that everybody receives is on the same level, because I'm very protective of the schools in my community of Fort Smith. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. And there's no further questions? Any other questions for the information items from Members? Member for Tu NedheWiilideh.
Thank you, Madam Chair. On page 59, I'm just curious in regards to the school in Dettah, I don't have the capital plan in front of me but I would like to ask the Minister where in the capital plan is they're planning to build a new school in Dettah? Thank you, Madam Chair.
This action item is just for the O and M of the school boards. So capital is usually discussed in I think we went through capital in the fall. But if I you know, I mean if you want to give a response if you know any information on anything that's going on, I'll give the Minister of ECE.
Thank you. So I can speak briefly to this. There isn't a plan. There's no plan for a new school in Dettah. There are 49 schools across the territory and they are looked at each individually. And the factors that they're taking into consideration are, you know, the safety of the school, the structural safety. You know, the mechanical safety. Is it nearing its end of life in enough ways that it's cheaper to build a new school than to continue to maintain a new school? And, you know, in Dettah I know there is a desire for a new school. I think, you know, talking to leaders from that community, there were it sounds like there were commitments they were aware of from years ago about a new school but the fact is the school's still in good enough shape that it's not slated to be replaced at this point. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Tu NedheWiilideh.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll just I have another question on the capital plan but I'll do it another another time I guess.
I want to go to page 60. In the authority allocation, it talks about fulltime positions. Here we got a 1047 positions. I'd like to ask the question in regards to the Minister in terms of what percentage is Northerners, southerners, and Indigenous? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you. Minister of ECE.
Thank you. I will say that these numbers here don't actually reflect the actual numbers of people employed. These numbers reflect the positions that are funded by ECE. But that being said, we can fund a school board for a number of positions and they can do whatever they want with that money. Generally, they if we fund them for a principal position, they have a principal. But there is a lot of flexibility.
I can get that information in terms of the number of northern or at least Indigenous teachers for the Member. We did provide that to the House not long ago in the form of a written question. But as I've stated before, the vast majority are not Northerners; they are from southern Canada. Thank you.
I will also say that the Yellowknife Catholic School Board and Yellowknife 1 do not keep affirmative action stats and so the largest number of our teachers, we don't know whether or not they're Indigenous or nonIndigenous. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Tu NedheWiilideh.
Well, no, I thank you, Madam Chair. I'll just wait for his rely on that statement that was made in the House here. I have other questions but I can wait another day to get that. Thank you.
Thank you. All right, so with the information item pages, does number else have any questions?
Seeing no further questions, we will now return to the departmental summary found on page 29. Education, Culture and Employment, operations expenditure, total department, 20222023 Main Estimates $358,318. Member for Frame Lake.
