Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Nerysoo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With regard to a short list of those programs or institutions to which we have relationships, they are: McGill University; the University of Lethbridge; the University of Calgary; the University of Saskatchewan; and, I believe, the University of Regina. There are other programs in the trades, we deal with NAIT, Fairview and SAIT. The efforts we are trying to address in this initiative that the Council of Ministers of Education are undertaking is students can transfer from institution to institution across the country and be recognized for the courses they are taking at other universities. For instance, if there is a student attending Dalhousie in the area of political science or law, they may be able to take the courses they have taken to the University of British Columbia and vice versa.

Today, there are students who have taken courses at the University of Toronto that are not accepted at the University of British Columbia. We are trying to break down those barriers. That will happen also in the trades area.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Another question to the Minister from the statement he made yesterday. The Minister stated yesterday that Education, Culture and Employment will review the student financial assistance program in the new fiscal year to increase its access for adult learners to bring its annual 10 per cent expenditure growth within financially sustainable levels. This is an interesting point, Mr. Speaker. For some time now, student financial assistance has been a real challenge to all MLAs. We all have people in our constituencies who go to college or university. When people go to school, they are always running short of funds. This is where we come in. If the Minister is going to review this program, it says he will be doing that in this new fiscal year. Could the Minister tell the House how he is going to do this review? Thank you.

Mr. Nerysoo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to advise the honourable Member that this is not the first time I have advised the House that the review would be taking place. Presently, the review is going out to a private company that will undertake to review the programs that are in existence at the moment and to have discussions with students. In fact, I had a meeting, along with staff, with the students of the University of Alberta advising them this review was taking place. Other students will be advised that the review is taking place, so we can get advice from the students as to the shortcomings of the programs that we now run for students. The fact is that in some instances, we may have a program that is the best in the country in total dollars, but maybe we are spending it in the wrong location. We need to have students access other programs, such as the child day care program, for instance, so we can supplement some of the students who are attending institutions outside the Northwest Territories.

So, Mr. Speaker, I can write and advise all Members of the status of the review. I can provide the documentation, the terms of reference and the timetable of the review, so that Members are well aware of the process we are following with regard to the review.

Thank you. Question period has lapsed. Item 7, written questions. Item 8, returns to written questions. Mr. Clerk.