Thank you. Minister of ECE.

Thank you. And in fairness, most of this $44 million is for career development and training in one way or another. But for that specific item, I can ask Mr. Saturnino to chime in. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Saturnino.

Thank you. Are there other Members who wish to ask questions on labour development and advanced education?

Seeing none, Members, please turn to page 54. Education, Culture and Employment, labour development and advanced education, operations expenditure summary, 2022-2023 Main Estimates, $54,215,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you. There are additional information items on page 58 through 64. Did the Minister wish to switch out witnesses?

Thank you, Madam Chair. And for the record, it's been Mr. Michael Saturnino who's been here, and I'd like to switch him out for Mr. Sam Shannon. Thank you.

Thank you. Sergeant-at-Arms, can you please escort the witness out and the new witness in.

Welcome back, Mr. Shannon.

All right, Members, we're at the end of the Education, Culture and Employment section. And there are information items, as I mentioned, from page 54 to 64. Does any Members have any questions in regards to any of those information items? Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks, Madam Chair. On page 58 is the Students Loan Fund, and, you know, I guess I'd like to ask during the COVID pandemic of the last couple years, I had heard that some students lost, you know, a year or two of education or started, you know, maybe classes in person and then when they switched to virtual, that didn't really meet their learning needs.

What, if any, flexibility or extension to, you know, student eligibility periods or anything like that has been -- or were loan payments put on pause or whatever; what accommodation was made during the pandemic with regard to the student financial assistance? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister of ECE.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So in the early days of the pandemic, yes, student loan payments were put on -- repayments were put on pause. Students were continued to be funded even if they had -- you know, there was issues with their courses because of school shutting down in early 2020. So there have been steps like that taken. In this last fiscal year, though, I don't believe there have been any additional measures such as that. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks, Madam Chair. And thanks to the Minister for that. As I understand it, students have sort of a period of time in which they are eligible once they start a program. Is the Minister willing to look at providing some flexibility in terms of eligibility for students if they lost a year or two during COVID? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister of ECE.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And there is some flexibility already built into the program but like I said, there's students every year who start attending post-secondary and for one reason or another, it doesn't work out; it's not for them. Perhaps it's mental health issues. Perhaps it's, you know, family tragedies. There's a number of reasons why students don't make it through a school year. And we don't have exceptions in, you know, the majority of cases although there are some exceptions. And this is, you know, in the -- we don't want to start making exceptions for students who, I guess, knew that, you know, there was a possibility that things could go online. You know, a lot of cases people knew what they were getting in for. I don't want to sound, you know, discompassionate, but we are not looking at making any sort of -- taking any of the measures the Member's speaking of. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Hay River -- Frame Lake.

Thanks. I love Hay River but I'm from Yellowknife but thanks, Madam Chair.

Can the Minister tell us whether any jurisdictions in Canada have looked at providing some flexibility in terms of student eligibility for financial assistance, given COVID, post-secondary education students? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister of ECE.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We shouldn't have sent Mr. Saturnino away. I don't have that information. We can provide some information back to the Member, though. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.

Yeah, okay, thanks, Madam Chair, and thanks to the Minister for that. So can the Minister just -- not having been a post-secondary education -- or a student for many years, what is the process of somebody who needs or wants to get an exception or extra consideration? Do they write to their, you know, their SFA officer and get some sort of waiver, or how does that process actually work? And, yeah, thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister of ECE.

Thank you. So most exceptions are really tied to medical issues, so if a student has a medical issue. And they would call their SFA, the SFA officer or their SFA contact person, that would be the first point of contact. And if the Member would like, we can provide information on, you know, what that process might look like. Thank you.