Agreed.

---Agreed

Agreed.

---Agreed

Agreed.

---Agreed

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In the third paragraph, to provide funding for increased costs associated with student financial assistance, I note from my previous experience -- and I have a lot of brothers and sisters who still go to school -- that the Inuit and Metis students pay taxes on loans and grants. Although you don't tax them at the time, when income tax time comes around, they is a supplementary income line where they pay taxes on these. While, status Indians don't. Why are aboriginals being treated differently in that respect?

I would defer to Mr. Nerysoo, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Just to clarify the matter, actually the problem exists for status Indians as well as, what you might say, are status Inuit. Generally speaking, the individuals who are not paying taxes at this time are non-status people in the

Northwest Territories, mainly because the manner by which we provide assistance to those students is through a forgivable loan. Therefore, it is not taxable. What we are now doing, at this particular juncture, is researching how we might bring forward a legal argument to the federal government about alleviating the taxes.

There is also a form that should be filled out by every student, indicating their status. If they are status Indian, there is a tax form that is available to them. What is occurring is most of the students aren't filling out those forms. But, I can assure you, Mr. Arvaluk, that we will be advising all the students this year about those forms that are available, so they can fill them out and have their names registered by the federal Government of Canada, so they don't have to pay taxes on student financial assistance.

Mr. Chairman, then that would go for all students of aboriginal descent?

Yes, Mr. Chairman, that's difficult to say because there's a problem with the manner in which we recognize...It's not my problem, it is the federal government's problem to deal with the matter of status, differentiating between status Indian and status Inuit. The fact is, despite what you might say are our best efforts, it may be very difficult to excuse, under present legislation, the so called non-status. But, that's not our problem. It is an issue that we have to argue with the federal government.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Under this department there is provision for student financial assistance for the community teacher education program. In the other department, people haven't seen anything to assist students who are taking social services programs, in Arctic College, mechanics or vocational training. I would like to ask the Minister of Finance, have there not been any requests from other students who are taking other programs, other than the community teacher education program? If there have been some requests, why have those requests not been considered by the government? Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, I stand to be corrected by the Minister of Education, but I understand this is because the enrolment has been exceeded beyond the budgeted amount. I think it has exceeded the original enrolment projections by some 86 people. I think that's the reason, it's a volume increase. I'll let the Minister answer further, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In terms of dealing with this particular matter, it was a conscious decision, the policy initiative -- on the part of previous governments -- that one aspect that we would be focusing on, in terms of training to alleviate the so called transiency in our workforce, was to try to reach 50 per cent of the educators in the Northwest Territories by the year 2000. That would mean that we would have to have an additional 500 aboriginal teachers in the Northwest Territories. We're well on our way, but one of the aspects that was necessary was for us to provide an additional incentive to the interns who were enrolled in the community and campus-based teacher education program, in order for us to meet the policy direction that we had embarked upon.

The other thing was that there has to be recognition that many of the individuals that we're talking about classroom assistants, or those who have originally been in the teacher program and, in fact, were working in the department. By taking them out of their salaried positions, we reduce the amount of income for those individuals. As a result of that, we had to find the additional resources so we could provide assistance to these individuals.

In terms of years of service, for instance for the TEP program, the total academic year alone was as a loan, a post-secondary loan. That was the basis on which we are providing the additional incentive.

Mr. Chairman, that's not to suggest we won't consider the possibility of changing the student financial assistance program, but we did make changes last year that improved it for aboriginal students. We have done that already. It took away a bit from the non-aboriginal students, but we were able to -- without much difficulty -- exceed this year, by significant numbers, the total projected number of applicants who applied for our programs. Through the changes, we have made very significant advances in our programming.

I recognize the concern that was raised, but all of it rests with whether we had the resources, the extra dollars. If I recall correctly, there have been other suggestions made to us as to where our priorities should be. So, it's all part of those discussions, that we have to consider, in making any decisions of providing additional resources, where we have the financial powers to do so.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. For the record, Mr. Chairman, I wanted to say that I think it's a wonderful way to encourage the residents of the NWT to further their education and be part of the workforce in a very important career, especially in teaching. I hope that some day we will be able to expand the program to other areas for students who are taking the social worker program, students who are in vocational training and any other areas of careers. I hope when we are able to afford this, we will expand. In fact, there have been some requests.

I received a call from Fort Smith when I was in Pelly Bay over the summer. One of the students who were taking the other programs found out that the government was providing this special assistance to students who are taking the community teacher education program. He was wondering if he was eligible for this. I promised this student that I would bring the matter before the House, and that's what I did. Thank you.