Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As Members will know, I have appointed a ministerial forum to consult with residents of the Northwest Territories and report back to me with recommendations for redesigning the Student Financial Assistance Program. Our program right now is the most generous in Canada. It means that our students typically, have a lower debt load than students in other jurisdictions upon graduation.
The federal government needs to recognize that we have taken the position that we are willing to put more money into student financial assistance and one of the reasons we have withdrawn from the Canada Student Loan Program is so we could, in fact, treat our students differently. If the federal government is going to contribute to decreasing student debt load across Canada, they have a commensurate obligation to recognize the contribution this government is currently making to keep student debt loads down and to compensate us if they are going to also do so in other provinces. The major thrust is that we go after the federal government. I cannot speak to what the redesigned student financial assistance program might look like because I will be coming back to this House with suggestions after I get the results from the ministerial forum, probably in early November. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.