Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I find myself again having to address the House about problems in Education, Culture and Employment. Today I have to highlight shortcomings in the Student Financial Assistance program, unfortunately more than just one.
Over the summer I learned of two situations involving NWT residents, their desire to further their education and a Department of Education, Culture and Employment unwilling to adjust policies to accommodate them. Now, I realize and I accept that we have to have policies and that we have them for a reason, but they should not be so rigid as to defy logic.
Case number one: an NWT student at school in Alberta, a single mom with her children. At Christmastime she wished to return to the NWT to be with her family, and being with family at Christmas is apparently a policy that governs SFA travel for students. The student’s children were provided airline tickets by their father and came back home for the Christmas holiday. The mom, of course, wanted to be with her family, her children at Christmas, but her request to Student Financial Assistance for travel funding was denied. The policy is that students with families can only travel at the beginning and the end of a school year, not at Christmas. The reason, because Education, Culture and Employment has a policy to keep families together. Single students can return at Christmas and at the beginning and the end of a school year, but not so students with dependents.
So this student, who could not afford a ticket to come home, spent Christmas by herself without the company of her kids and other family members. I struggle mightily, Mr. Speaker, to see the logic in the Student Financial Assistance decision in this case.
There are other options. The department has to think outside the box, has to provide some flexibility to their staff to make decisions in the best interest of the student and their family, and here’s the solution for the Minister: put a dollar limit on student financial assistance travel per student or per family, allow the student to travel when they like, spending only to the predetermined limit. In the case I’ve described, it would allow the mom to travel home at Christmas but then have to make some adjustment for her family’s return travel at the end of the school year.
I said two cases, didn’t I, Mr. Speaker? Well, case number two, stay tuned for more to come tomorrow. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
