Mr. Speaker, the status quo for Indigenous education is not working. The Government of the Northwest Territories has to implement UNDRIP, and that means fixing up the territory's education system, so it works for Indigenous children and carried out in collaboration with Indigenous governments. My question to the Minister of ECE.
Will the Minister commit to allowing Indigenous students to apply through student financial assistance for both supplementary grants and the remissible loan? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Tu NedheWiilideh. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, ECE completed a review of the SFA program just in the last Assembly and with the goals to ensure that it was meeting the needs of NWT students to pursue their postsecondary education goals. The changes were in alignment as much of the work that we do, and the new work that we do with the Truth and Reconciliation of Canada Calls to Action, as well as the Report on the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, as well as United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, with the aim of better supporting Indigenous students with financial assistance to access postsecondary. And so that led to specific changes being made for northern Indigenous students in the program, which increased the supplementary grant to help with their monthly living expenses and to remove the limit of semesters that can be accessed by students as well, Mr. Speaker.
The SFA program offers monthly living allowance to students through either the supplementary grant or the remissible loan. And just so that everybody is aware, the grants are not repayable to the Government of the Northwest Territories. Remissible loans may be forgiven if a student returns to the NWT after they've completed their schooling but otherwise will be considered repayable. And students who receive the remissible loans must remain within that $60,000 loan limit. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister commit to establishing educational bodies that align with regional boundaries of existing treaties and those treaties still under negotiation and work with Indigenous governments to determine the governance of those bodies? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one of my tasks, and very exciting and important tasks over the life of this term, is to begin work on the modernization of the Education Act, and that work will be done in collaboration with Indigenous governments and so I could very well see this being part of the conversation.
One of the cautions I would put out there is that the treaties currently under negotiation, that do not yet have boundaries established there's some of them so we wouldn't know what those would be, and then under, for example Treaty 8 and Treaty 11, the geographies are quite large, so you might end up with very large education bodies that may be deemed kind of unfeasible. And so I look forward to having these conversations when we do review the Education Act. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister commit to working with Indigenous governments, including the Dene Nation, to help them reclaim education to preserve their traditional culture and knowledge so that they pass on from one generation to the next generation for education to be available in their traditional language? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in conversations in communities and with Indigenous governments that happened in the previous Assembly, immersion education was one of the top things that our committee at that time consistently heard about, and so I absolutely expect that this will be a key component of the conversation when we do review the Education Act. But that being said, Mr. Speaker, there is an Indigenous languages and education policy in place today in support of education bodies and welcoming all students within learning environments that centre respect and promote Indigenous world views, culture, and languages in our classrooms.
In addition to that, there's the Indigenous languages and education handbook, which is now being implemented in all schools across the NWT. And this was developed with the guidance of Dene, Metis, Inuvialuit, and NWT Cree, to help inform and guide efforts to Indigenize education. And then there is also the Our Languages curriculum which was released and implemented in our classrooms and is really truly a groundbreaking curriculum in the Northwest Territories and something that the NWT should be very proud of. But I very much look forward to continuing conversations about immersion education across the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Tu NedheWiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister commit to revising the NWT Education Funding Framework away from an inequalitybased oriented to a equitybased approach so that small communities can access more educational and wellness programming? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the current school funding framework does distribute funding based on a base level of funding; enrolmentbased funding as well; a northern context index, which depends on the location of the school; consumer price increases, as well as targeted funding, for example for inclusive schooling. But I fully expect that the funding formula will also be a huge topic of conversation as we review the Education Act. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Dehcho.
