Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. On March 12, 2009, I challenged the department and the Minister of ECE to review the SFA in terms of years of eligibility. I said that I believed that the program of our southern neighbour in Alberta was stronger than ours. I challenged the Minister to see if he would do a general overview and come back with what he found out. I also challenged him to see if he could strengthen the SFA in terms of six years of eligibility. The Minister said, “Certainly we can provide more research with our neighbouring Alberta. We need to find out if it is all grants, because I am sure there is a loans portfolio as well.”
I’d like to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment when he is going to report on his findings.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. When the question was first raised in this House, I did respond to the Member’s question, reflecting on our program comparable to other jurisdictions such as Alberta. At that time I did state that we have the best program to subsidize students in the Northwest Territories, comparable to the information that we had at that time. With that, I did commit to this House that we were looking at an overall review of the SFA program and I’m glad to say that we have done that.
The review is before us and I’m going to be tabling that document today, and it does reflect on what we’ve initiated so far. I believe there are two or three key topics of recommendations that we’ve followed up already. What the Member is referring to is also part of the recommendations as a long-term strategy to work towards. So I need to work with standing committee on which are the priority areas and how we can move forward together. So that’s what I’ll be working towards with the standing committee. Mahsi.
I’m not advocating that we take anything away from our students, but this government has been providing non-Aboriginal students with six years of forgivable loans on the backs of the Aboriginal students.
Mahsi. Again, that information will be before this House as a public document, and as we move forward, those are recommendations to me, as the Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, on Student Financial Assistance. So in order to start implementing those, we need to find the funds, and I need to work with the standing committee to find those funds and which are the priority areas. So I am committing to working with the Members across the floor to highlight and identify which of the recommendations we should be going after first, second or third and so forth over a short-term and long-term strategy. That’s the commitment I’ve made. Mahsi.
Thank you. Is the Minister aware that in Alberta people from the Northwest Territories with Indian status are eligible under the post-secondary funding program and that they are eligible for grants for an undergraduate degree, a master’s degree and a PhD degree for a combined maximum of 80 months, or eight years of financing? I repeat, this is eight years of grants, not loans.
Would the Minister see this as an opportunity for us to improve our education funding for students under grants?
Mahsi. We did look into Alberta and southern jurisdictions, their student financial assistance. Again, our program is much better than what they provide. I’ll give you an example.
As I stated on March 12, 2009, the limitation of $50,000 for a loan limit in other jurisdictions. Ours was $47,000. We increased it to $60,000 so at least we can service a master’s student. So we are improving our program every time and, again, with the recommendations that were brought to my attention from the general public, from the students, from the parents and also from Regular Members, we will be following through with those recommendations on a long-term basis. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
I challenge the Minister to come back next session with a plan for changes to the Student Financial Assistance program that adds another level of funding so that Aboriginal students can get the funds to obtain a master’s and a PhD degree. Will the Minister commit to that?
Mahsi. What I can commit to in this House is that I will be working with the standing committee to identify, as we move forward on the business planning process, which areas we need to highlight as a priority for this government. Also for the Regular Members, I want to share their perspective, because we have 18 recommendations. Unfortunately, we can’t implement them all next year or the following year, but we can at least capture two or three that we can move forward on. So I’m committed to doing that. I’ll be working closely with standing committee on a move forward basis. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
