Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to speak about the need for Education, Culture and Employment to provide student financial assistance for Aboriginal students to do master’s and PhD degrees.
In 1998 this government reduced the number of years an Aboriginal student can receive SFA to six years. This was done to assist the GNWT when the federal government reduced our budget by 10 percent. MLAs agreed to this, because the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment of the day promised he would put something in place so that Aboriginal students could get the same level of student financial assistance for master’s and PhD degrees.
What is the situation almost 15 years later? First, let’s look at the jobs. The vast majority of GNWT jobs require one degree, or many require a master’s. In fact, there are 17 positions in the division of early childhood and school services at ECE. Sixteen of those positions, or 94 percent of the 17 positions, require a master’s degree.
What about the improvements to SFA? Well, I’m proud to say the then-Minister of Education did substantially improve SFA but not for Aboriginal students who want to get their master’s or PhD degrees. The government changed the regulations so that the non-Aboriginal students now receive a remissible loan with allowance of six years, the same as Aboriginal students, but we have done nothing for Aboriginal students to get their master’s or PhD degrees.
Aboriginal students took a huge hit in 1998. This government reduced their SFA from unlimited years to six years. Aboriginal students helped this GNWT meet our new budget, but we failed our Aboriginal students. We created a problem for them in 1998 and we have failed to fix it as we said we would.
It’s time to fix the problem of no master’s or PhD degrees for Aboriginal students that we created 15 years ago. Otherwise, Aboriginal students might say that GNWT is deliberately trying to keep Aboriginal people from working at ECE, or if ECE is an illustration of the government as a whole, they can say that we’re trying to keep Aboriginal people out of the GNWT. Look at our hiring percentage.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
