Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. But we have to consider most loans are paid over 20, 25 or 30 years. This has to be paid back within four years; almost $300 million. Mr. Speaker, this government can never be taken responsibly, until we show that we can deal with overpayments like this in a responsible manner. So we need to be seen as a responsible government, cleaning up the last government's mess. Would the Minister have his officials at least conduct an inter-jurisdictional review of best practices of how federal overpayments are done, and received and taken care of in their provinces? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our fiscal responsibility policy that we put forward to the federal government, and how we deal with the federal government, is based on their terms that this overpayment situation has occurred. They're aware of it; they have the repayment plan that affects every jurisdiction. It's the same plan. It's a three-year plan, and it's also based on your population, of how much is repaid on an annual basis until the third year, which is coming up in the next fiscal cycle we have.

Everything we do is processed in accordance with the rules, and so on. So I think we're of a position, we've taken the situation as we have it, and worked with the federal government, and have been working with them around a number of other initiatives. But when we look at it, we are scheduled for that repayment coming up. We have taken that into account; it's built into our fiscal plan. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think we continue to avoid the fact that we're spending money that doesn't belong to us, and we've negotiated it into an interest-free loan, by avoiding it and putting it as a burden on the next government. So my awe-inspiring question to the Minister of Finance, whom I have a lot of respect for, is, what, then, will the Minister do to ensure that this government will conduct its finances with integrity and true responsibility, and we don't leave the next government and the next Assembly with any type of burden from our willy-nillyness on dealing with interest-free loans? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, let me reaffirm to the Member, and this House, and to the people of the Territories, that this government is not dealing willy-nilly with the finances of the Territories.

---Applause

We, in fact, have taken full responsibility for this and have accounted for it. In the future, working with the federal government, if our fiscal responsibility paper is adopted by them, that would give us much ability to look at how we deal with our finances.

Ultimately, yes, as a government, we do have to look at every time this occurs, and in most cases, it's much smaller than that amount, than the $290 million that has been identified; but, unfortunately, this one was a very large one, and we would be able to deal with these on an annual basis without much impact on our fiscal situation.

As I stated, we did look at the options, and did a scenario, and if we decided to pay it back immediately and just sent the money back, what that would do for our fiscal picture. Our fiscal forecast would not change significantly by doing that. But I will, as I have mentioned to the Members in this House, look at what options are in front of us, and what we can do to make sure that the NWT remains in a sound fiscal position. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I look behind me and I see all these students from the school here in Yellowknife, and some day they'll be applying for SFA when they go to college. I'm sure people here wouldn't want to have their decisions made from an office in Inuvik or Fort Smith. So I would like to ask the Minister of Education, why are there no regional offices in the NWT with the authority to make decisions? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In fact, there are no offices in the student financial assistance system that can make decisions that would have changed the situation the Member spoke of in his Member's statement today. The way our system is set, the officers have no power to overrule the regulations, and the regulations have to be followed explicitly. So a more

important issue is, what can we do to make the regulations work for the students? The Member has brought an important issue to light here, where the regulations, in this situation, cost the government more money than if we had been able to do what was probably the sensible thing and pay for the travel. So I have ensured that we are taking a look at how we can address that issue. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister talks about regulations. I'm sure these regulations aren't written in stone, and I'm sure we do have the authority, or I'd like to know if the Minister has the authority to overrule some of these decisions, based on facts, not on regulations. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No, the current situation is that the Minister cannot overrule the regulations. So the way that we deal with issues when they come to our attention, that we have a problem like the one that the Member has brought up, is we look at how we can change the regulations to go forward in ways that we can recognize better results. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister look at establishing regional offices that have the authority to make decisions for the students, once these regulations are changed? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have looked at this issue, in terms of student financial assistance officers. Given the nature of the program and how it works, in that all of the applications come in in a very short period of time, typically two times a year, there aren't enough dedicated staff to spread out across the Territories in a cost-effective way. I am certainly prepared to work with Members to see how we can strengthen the work of the regional offices, to make sure that they're working with students to help them navigate their way through the system. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Final supplementary, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister spoke of dedicated staff across the Northwest Territories. I'm sure there are not dedicated staff or positions here in Yellowknife that could move across the Northwest Territories. So my final question to the Minister, with this particular constituent that I'm dealing with, the Minister says we can't overrule the decision. So will he look into this constituent's concern and make a good business decision, or is this a final decision? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Ministers cannot overrule a regulation like this and change the situation retroactively. I am committed to looking at the situation and making a change to the regulations, to ensure that we don't run into this sort of situation again. My goal would be to establish a policy whereby travel assistance is provided on a cash basis, so that everybody can look after their own travel themselves, and we don't get into this sort of situation where we pay minute attention to where people are travelling from or how they're travelling. Thank you.