Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions will be following my statement about northern students and student financial assistance, questions for ECE. The first question I have is I know we are dealing with students who have lived in the Northwest Territories, grew up in the Northwest Territories, have left their jurisdiction for a period of time and now have to re-establish their residency. We aren’t talking about some person coming from the South who has nothing to do with the Northwest Territories; we are talking about Northerners coming back. I want the Minister to commit to changing that residency for those northern students to three months. Will he do that?
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. As I indicated earlier to Ms. Bisaro, these are areas we are currently exploring. Residency has been the topic of discussion recently as well. Even though we’ve made some changes, there is always room for improvement within our policy. So the residency requirement, 12 months residency versus three months, we need to explore those options. What will be the ripple effects? What would be the benefits, pros and cons? I have already committed that this is an area that we are going to be exploring.
The Minister has indicated that it’s a policy. The point is you don’t need to evaluate it. We don’t need to monitor it. We need students to come back. We need Northerners to come back to the North.
Why do we need to monitor this? Why not give our staff the ability to change that? The Minister has the power to make that with the swipe of his pen.
Can he commit to changing this policy right here? Don’t monitor it. We are getting Northerners back to the Northwest Territories. It should be a no-brainer. Will he commit to that?
If it was that easy, I would have made that change yesterday. We are, as my department, working diligently on the particular policy that we have in place. It’s been in since 2000, so 15 years.
Obviously, we are supporting our Northerners coming back to the North. When a Northerner lives in the South, whether it be Alberta or a provincial jurisdiction, they are sponsored with 12 months’ residency. They have the same residency as we do across Canada. So once they live in southern Alberta, as such, they will qualify for financial compensation to go to school. So, we need to be very careful how we approach that. We are currently looking at that, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.
Again, Mr. Speaker, the comments are “monitor, we’ll look into it.” Let’s just commit to getting Northerners back here. This government has a mandate to get 2,000 more people into the Territories. We need to figure out how to do that. Whether it’s the legislation or it has to be brought to this House, let’s bring it to the House. Let’s get that changed. We know it’s an issue. We know students go out and see the world after they are done high school. They are gone for a year. Those are the type of people we are dealing with as well. The Minister is giving the example of one person. We need to be flexible. We need to be able to change the student financial situation for the individual.
Is this Minister prepared to look at individual’s needs for student financial assistance? Thank you.
I want to make it clear that we are supporting our northern students to return to the Northwest Territories. That’s the very reason we have increased and enhanced our SFA program. We have increased the basic grant from $1,900 to $2,400; increased the basic grant on books from $400 to $550; increased current remission rates by 50 percent; a $2,000 northern bonus for our students, a bonus for our students to come back to the North and explore the North. Those are just some of the enhancements that we’ve initiated in 2015. We continue to make improvements as part of the SFA program, one of the best in the Northwest Territories and Canada. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I agree with the Minister; I think we have a great SFA if you fit into the cookie cutter and this is the way you did it: You went to Grade 12, next year you go to school. But if you don’t fit into that cookie cutter system that we have, you’re in trouble. You are going to have to fight and scream for every dollar and you are going to have to fight with your own territorial government to get support. We are looking for flexibility, not a stringent box.
Will the Minister commit to making this SFA flexible for those people who don’t fit into that box?
Again, yes, I will be looking into it. We have to be very mindful. Our northern students go south and they get sponsorship and they come back north to go to school. We have to be careful that we don’t double-dip. They get compensation, say, from Alberta government. At the same time, we sponsor them within the three months residency as is suggested here. Those are areas we are exploring, pros and cons, the benefits to our students. Whatever we do, provincial and territorial jurisdictions are watching us. Any changes we make, obviously we will need to work with them. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Dolynny.
