Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wanted to follow up with some more questions to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I wasn’t really satisfied with the responses that I got from the Minister on the fact that we are treating folks who go out for training for apprenticeship training differently than we are treating college students. I’m just wondering, according to the Minister’s logic, why the Government of the Northwest Territories, because we have infrastructure on the ground for post-secondary studies here and programs running in the Northwest Territories, why do we fund students to attend southern institutions in the area of nursing or teaching, for example. Can the Minister explain that to me?
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We do fund all students as best we can; the 1,400 post-secondary students that are out there and the apprenticeship students that are out there. I think we have to keep that in mind that this particular campus that we’re talking about, it’s also geared towards apprenticeship because, as I stated, we’ve invested so much already and we continue to invest in upgrading our facility so it’s one of the top of the line courses that is being offered. At the same time, other students are taking those post-secondary programs as well at Smith campus and Inuvik campus or Yellowknife campus. We do sponsor all the students, but there are at times courses that the students want to take outside and then it’s their choice to do so.
Again I’m just having trouble understanding the Minister’s logic because, yes, we have an investment in Fort Smith, but the same could be true for the Aurora Campus here in Yellowknife at Northern United Place where we as a government have contributed a tremendous amount of money into the Northern Nursing Program that’s now affiliated with the University of Victoria. So why doesn’t the Minister go out, round up all the students we have in southern Canada and put them here in Yellowknife so that they can get educated here in the Northwest Territories? His argument makes no sense. I want to know why apprentices are treated differently than college students. Why are they made to go to Fort Smith?
I think there’s also a cost factor to keep in mind where we have students who are going to NAIT or other southern institutions that we pay well over $5,000 for one student. If you add let’s say 100 students in the Apprenticeship Program, that’s $580,000 going outside the Northwest Territories where that can be spent to our campuses in the Northwest Territories. We say we have 1,400 students going south. I’m sure it doesn’t cost us $5,800 for one student. There is a fee that we pay at the NAIT campuses, because they have their own NAIT institution act that they follow that we have to pay for a seat. Those are some of the differentiations in how the cost factors are in play. But it is $580,000 that we are looking at.
I think we should treat everybody fairly and equally. That includes apprentices and anybody wanting to further their education. If that’s in southern Canada, then it’s in southern Canada. Either we’re going to support people or we’re not. Apprentices should not be treated any differently than anybody else. I’d like to ask the Minister if he has any flexibility whatsoever when it comes to this policy so that when somebody is caught in a predicament where they can go to a third year and get it done while they’re already there, which makes absolute sense, is there any flexibility that the Minister has to make sure that this can happen. What’s right should happen.
Yes, there is flexibility where if a program is not being offered at our campuses, we send students down south such as we did with this individual on his second year. So we continue to promote that. But we do have to keep in mind that we do have campuses here in the Northwest Territories that we need to sponsor and support. It’s our true northern campuses.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
I think the Minister is missing my point. The point is that this individual can start his third year almost immediately. He can be concluded that third year prior to April 7th when the program starts in Fort Smith, which would enable him to come back home to Yellowknife and pursue his further apprenticeship. I would like to ask the Minister, has there been allowances under the policy in the past that saw individuals allowed to attend back-to-back years at NAIT or SAIT?
The intake, again, is for March at NAIT and three weeks later it’s at Fort Smith campus. So there is not much time difference. At the same time we’re not just talking about one student. We’re talking about other students that will be lining up at our door saying, pay for our institution down south. We don’t want to close down our facility in Fort Smith, Inuvik, or Yellowknife campus. That should be our first priority, supporting our campuses in the Northwest Territories.
