Madam Chair, I think we’re getting a bit more clarity here. So, we are hearing that the remission rate, the rate that we are writing off, or basically return of work services, if I can use that terminology, is increasing. The question that I have here is: How much of that is real cash that is being in default? Really, is this real cash that’s not coming back in as a result of a fairly high default rate of possibly 60 percent? How much of that revolving fund or how much of that of the potential $5 million increase here is due to actual cash not coming back into the coffers of this revolving fund? Thank you.

Madam Chair, I am encouraged to get that type of information, and I think committee would also be interested in receiving that.

Lastly, this is a question I brought up two years ago when we had the opportunity to look at this bill. Last time we increased it to $40 million. It was the fact that if we are going to do the work of opening up a bill to do a consequential amendment to the act, the fact that the appeals program was also noted as being an opportunity in this area and, again, I ask once again.

The student financial assistance appeals process is in dire need of a review. When can we expect to see this happening, and why didn’t we include it now? We know how much time, work and energy it takes to get a bill to the House, to the floor. I know this has been asked not by this Member; other Members have come forward. I am asking why didn’t we include it now since we are opening this up for the second time during the life of the 17th Assembly and if it’s not going to be opened up now, when can we expect to see the appeals process being revamped, relooked, retooled in order to meet the needs of our students? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister Lafferty.

Mahsi, Madam Chair. We recall that two years ago that was addressed to our department. I was just trying to get clarification of the status on that. The appeals part will be introducing that potentially this coming fall. I will get Ms. Saturnino to just maybe elaborate more in detail. Mahsi.

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Ms. Saturnino.

Thank you, Ms. Saturnino. Next under general comments I have Ms. Bisaro.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I have similar concerns to my colleague Mr. Dolynny. I also wondered about why we needed the increase,

and I appreciate the answer. I do have questions around the amounts, similar to Mr. Dolynny.

We’ve talked about a default rate, I think defaulting on loans rate, and we’ve talked about a remission rate. My question is not so much the dollar amount but a trend.

Has the percentage of remission and defaulting on loans gone up or gone down over the last number of years? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Ms. Saturnino.

Thank you, Ms. Saturnino. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Madam Chair. That’s great. Can I get a sense of whether or not…and this is not so much relative to the students coming back but… Well, I guess it is, because if more students are coming back then we are remissing more money.

I’m looking for a trend. Can you give me any indication of over, say, the last five or 10 years whether or not this number has been going up or whether it has stayed steady or if it has gone down? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Lafferty.

We just know that over a five-year period it’s around 70 percent, but we can provide the detailed information to the Members.

My next question is similar to Mr. Dolynny’s in looking at the cash amount, but I guess if you can’t tell me the percentage, you probably can’t tell me the amount of dollars. I’m looking to know whether or not the dollar amount that we are forgiving and/or that we are losing through defaulted loans is going up or down over time.

That is detailed information that we don’t have at the tips of our fingers here, but at the same time, we can provide that information to the Members.

Thanks to the Minister. My last question is a general question with regard to this

particular process, and I think we all know that developing a bill requires a great deal of time and effort on the part of both Regular Members, the Minister’s office and staff. It’s quite a process to put legislation in place and to go through the whole process of providing it to committee, committee does the review, it then comes here. There is a great deal of time and effort involved on many people’s parts, and it seems to me that there might be a better way to do this without having to make a change to legislation, whether it’s every year or every two or three years.

I’d like to know whether that’s something that the Minister and the department have considered, and if they have, did they find that there’s an easier way to do it without having to go through a bill every time we want to increase the amount in this fund?

These are the areas that we are currently exploring. As I stated, two years ago it was introduced to the standing committee, and we want to have a better and also a faster process of dealing with it in light of this time-consuming…(inaudible)…. We hear the Members clearly, so we’ll find ways of expediting this process in a timely manner.

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. General comments. Next I have Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Madam Chair. My questions would hopefully stay within the confines of this bill here. I’m very interested in hearing what the issues are and the increase to the student financial assistance. Certainly, I spoke earlier in my Member’s statement of the struggles students have attending post-secondary education in colleges or universities. I want to ask the Minister, in regard to this increase, is the Minister, I guess… I’m glad to hear that the students are returning to the Northwest Territories, so is it to say that if a student has a loan and they come back to the Northwest Territories, do they have to work within a government department, agency or NGO, then that will help them with the remission of their loan? Is that the agreement?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Lafferty.

Mahsi, Madam Chair. Part of the process is that the loan to be remissed are those individuals need to come back to the North and live in the North. They don’t necessarily have to work in the North, but they have to be living in the North.

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Rather than getting into great detail on the program itself, if we could limit our comments today to the issue of the increase on the cap for the Student Financial Assistance. That might serve us well. Thank you. Mr. Yakeleya.