Debates of June 1, 2006 (day 3)

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Just a question to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment relating to the policies and procedures manual for the basic grants that are allowable to students in the NWT. Like I stated in my Member’s statement, a lot of students in this day and age go to university for nine years straight. They want a couple of bachelor of arts degrees. Some want to go for master’s and Ph.D.s. Our 12-semester limitation per lifetime in our policies and procedures manual for Student Financial Assistance to me just seems to undermine the initiative our students have. When was the last time this policies and procedures manual was updated to accommodate the growing number of university students who are going for their master degrees or Ph.D. level degrees in the NWT today? Would he be willing to commit to deleting the “in your lifetime’’ portion of that one sentence in the maximum number of grants available? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Dent.

Return To Question 30-15(5): Student Financial Assistance Available For Post-Graduate Studies

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am a fan of life-long learning, so I enjoy seeing people getting back into school and continuing on with their education, but the simple fact is we don’t have unlimited funds. That was one of the reasons the limits were put there. Even if we were to take away the "in your lifetime" sentence, still right now we tie the amount of contributions to the years of schooling. So there is one semester of funding for every year of schooling, which means that maximum for somebody who has been schooled in the Northwest Territories for 12 years is 12 semesters, or typically to a master’s degree if they go through in consecutive years.

I point out, Mr. Speaker, that we do have very, very good scholarship programs available, particularly for those who are taking master’s in Ph.D. programs; $5,000 and $10,000 per year. So we do have other ways that we support students who are following up on post-secondary education. But to do what the Member is asking, which is to provide even more grants than the 12 semesters that we provide for right now, would take a significant increase in funding. As the Member will be aware, that is a bit of a challenge. As we have more funding available, I would be happy to review the regulations and look towards changing that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Mr. Villeneuve.

Supplementary To Question 30-15(5): Student Financial Assistance Available For Post-Graduate Studies

I know the Minister just raised another real concerning issue for me. Northern residents schooled in the NWT 12 years, you live here in the NWT, you go to school here in the NWT, and you are only eligible for 12 semesters of funding. What’s the rationale on that? I just don’t see how they come up with some kind of an eligibility requirement like that. I think if you go to school 12 years here in the NWT, you should be eligible to any unlimited amount of funding for Student Financial Assistance to carry on and go ahead, over and above the scholarships and loans available. That’s one of these policies that I would like to see reviewed and probably taken out of the whole policies and procedure manual. I just want to ask the Minister how much of the basic grant funding that the government allocates in their Student Financial Assistance Program has been spent this year so far. Do we have to use it all up? Do we use it all up every year?

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Mr. Dent.

Further Return To Question 30-15(5): Student Financial Assistance Available For Post-Graduate Studies

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This being early in the fiscal year, I would expect that we haven’t used very much yet of our Student Financial Assistance allocation since the budget was only approved to be effective April 1st. Most of the money goes out in September for the rest of the year. We do typically use almost all of the Student Financial Assistance. In fact, many years we have gone over what we put in the budget and have had to reallocate from other budget line items or else come back to the Assembly for an increase in funding. This Assembly has never turned the department down when they needed more funding to put into that line item. I think we do see the importance of funding education.

I think we’ve also recognized that there is a certain amount of money that we can put into a program. The decision was made that to go to six years' worth of funding was a reasonable allocation. I would certainly be happy to expand on that, but then we would have to be looking at taking money from some other programs or we are going to have to be successful at winning in our arguments with the federal government that we should have access to resource royalties and revenue sharing because we need a new source of revenues to put into important programs like Student Financial Assistance.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Short supplementary, Mr. Villeneuve.

Supplementary To Question 30-15(5): Student Financial Assistance Available For Post-Graduate Studies

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know we are kind of stretched thin on education funding. I know the Minister has said typically we use all the funding. I know that, right off the top of my head, I know three students who are carrying on with law degrees, over and above the BAs they have and they can’t ask the government for any money because they have used their 12-semester limit. Can’t the government make the exception to the small number of students that we do have as it is at the university level to provide them with some sort of basic government grant, so that they don’t have all these financial woes that you hear about every day? Can we take exception every year and look at each individual on a case-by-case basis? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Mr. Dent.

Further Return To Question 30-15(5): Student Financial Assistance Available For Post-Graduate Studies

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have probably the most generous Student Financial Assistance Program in Canada at this point. It is one that this Legislative Assembly has agreed we should invest in because of the importance of ensuring northern residents are well educated. It is a shared program. There is responsibility on students and their families to contribute as well. The expectation is, particularly for those who are going into programs like medicine or law, we know they are going to have tremendous earning power. It’s not that they are cut off from Student Financial Assistance; they can access repayable loans. There is an expectation that they will invest in their own future and be prepared to borrow some money in order to pursue their goals. In spite of having said that, both Health and the Department of Justice offer tremendous bursary programs, as well, to help people who are pursuing those kinds of expensive degrees to continue. So between what we offer with the scholarships, the bursaries that are available and the repayable loans, we think we still have the best Student Financial Assistance Program in Canada. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.