Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I want to follow up on my statement today.
I think the Minister recognizes that we’ve failed many of our Grade 12 graduates in the counselling we’ve provided. When I went to school -- some time ago, I acknowledge -- it was clear there was a matriculation Grade 12 diploma and a vocational and that led to a lot of clarity. Today that’s not true. We have a bolus of students, a bunch of students who are lost in Never-Never Land, needing to upgrade to 6actually pursue the post-secondary requirements they want. I’m wondering if the Minister can tell me if there is a separate fund under the Student Financial Assistance Program for students in post high school upgrading programs or the need to get into those programs. And if separate, can he tell me the amount of those funds?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. A couple of questions there. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. As you know, the Student Financial Assistance Program is one of the greatest benefits of all throughout Canada. There is other funding available through DIAND throughout Canada for First Nations students. Dene and Inuit students can apply for USEP funding through that department. That is additional funding on top of the SFA that’s out there.
The Member is referring to upgrading. We currently don’t provide funding for upgrading, but we provide funding for access programs through Aurora College and other institutions, as long as there’s an access program, such as access to nursing, social work, teaching, those types of professions. There’s also ARDA and Income Assistance. That’s another resource that we can provide additional funding from on top of the SFA to meet the standards the students need.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m very disappointed in this information. USEP, of course, is a very small fund and it runs out in no time at all. Ask any of these students who are looking for upgrading opportunities. The Minister knows full well that due to our lack of an adequate system... And albeit we may have one of the best Student Financial Assistance Programs in the country, we also have one of the worst records in graduating students who are unqualified for their post-secondary education. I’m looking to meet this need. USEP clearly doesn’t cover it and we don’t provide upgrading opportunities ourselves. This is a crime.
I’d like to ask if the Minister will commit to providing that funding, a fund specifically dedicated for that. It’s impossible to guess how many students have given up and don’t even apply for the funding now, because of the sort of negative feedback that I’m hearing from through my constituents. Will the department commit to putting those funds in place?
I must say that we’re very proud of the highest aboriginal graduates in the country in the Northwest Territories. We should be proud of that. The school system, we are currently developing an action plan to deal with that through the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative. We’ve highlighted the core needs of the community. We’ve visited a Sahtu community already. We’re visiting all regions. They’re providing us solutions that are coming from the communities. This is an area we are very serious about.
Also, at the same time, we are going through a review of the Student Financial Assistance Program. Those are the key areas we are currently undergoing. There is also a labour market agreement that provides funding, whether it be training for students that fall through the cracks. This is federal funding that we’ve taken advantage of.
These are just some of the key areas that we are currently covering for funding. SFA is under review. The Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative is on the way. We are making great progress in that area. The action plan will be produced out of that discussion.
Thank you to the Minister for those comments. I’m very pleased to hear that that review is underway.
I want to comment on the Minister noting that we have the highest number of aboriginal student graduates. I’m very happy to hear that and I support that, and I think that does say some good things about our system. However, if we’re graduating students who clearly don’t have the qualifications to go on to post-secondary education, what does that say about that statistic? We can’t hide in statistics and we can’t afford to do that. I would ask this Minister to please commit to lobbying the federal Minister to bump up that USEP program to meaningful dollars, especially recognizing that we have failed in graduating qualified students.
I want to reassure that we are not hiding anything within our system. We provide any data that’s available on the Northwest Territories education system, because we want to be transparent and we want to be accountable to what’s before us. That’s the very reason why we’re going throughout the Northwest Territories in all regions to deal with the education matters. We are very concerned about that. We want to come to a solution. There is a solution at the grassroots, communities, who we are seeking advice from. It is happening. The federal, yes, we continuously lobby them through Education, Justice, federal/provincial/territorial Justice Ministers meetings constantly. The First Nations students are being represented at that level and we continually lobby the federal government for additional funding. With limited and also the small jurisdictions, we seem to be always left out, compared to other reservations that receive funding. Those are the areas we continue to have our discussion and possibly have a separate agreement, our uniqueness of the Northwest Territories. I will continue to support that.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister’s commitments there. I acknowledge that in fact we do, we are very open about these things. Who I’m hearing from, of course, are my constituents who are trying to upgrade. I want to make the point that these are young people who are often starting families, or perhaps are single parents who have extra needs perhaps beyond the norm. They are facing these challenges. I hope and, I guess, I would ask the Minister to commit and consider these aspects of these students without appropriate certificates for pursuing post-secondary, that they be considered in this review and be addressed in the solutions offered in that review.
I’m sure that will be part of the discussion, because there will be a wide range of discussions with the public as well. Any input from the Members will be greatly appreciated, and also the Northwest Territories. If we make changes, it has to benefit the Northwest Territories as well. Definitely this is an area that I’m excited about and I’m looking forward to those changes as well.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
