Thank you to the Minister. At this point in time here, I will add, and on the spirit of leniency going into round two, if Members could condense their comments and a short brief question, that might expedite our review of this chapter.

Going back to the Member for Frame Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. To that end, I am finished. Thank you.

Thank you to the Member. I will now move on to the Member from Monfwi.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Mr. Chair, it is a shame, you know, SFA policy is holding our Indigenous students hostage, fund them only when -- you know, if they are taking Aurora College bridging program. But it's something that we need to work on to improve. Yes, there's a lot of improvement made. You know, like student loans was increased from 60 to 90,000, and at the same time and just like the Minister said, okay, the -- for basic and supplementary funds have been, you know -- there was some improvement made. But living in the Northwest Territories, to rent -- the rent are -- you know, there's limited housing for students and -- in Aurora College -- with Aurora College, especially in Yellowknife, we have limited space available. So some students, okay, they go to Fort Smith, and still the funding is still not enough. I mean, it's, I guess -- that's only way that some of our young people will, you know -- it's -- it's going to help with mental and emotional -- the struggle is good in a way sometimes but not, you know, to what it used to be, especially now with the high cost of living. So I know that the some of the students, in order to meet for the rent, especially with the rent increase going on -- and then I know some of the parents or some of the young people do not -- room and board is not an option for them. Maybe -- so they're going to go for student loan. That's what they're going to do because this -- the monthly living allowance, it's not going to pay for the rent if you're living off campus, so. And then -- so there is a student loan that they offer here. There's that remissible loan but there's that loan that they're offering -- okay, just wait. Okay, the interest rate for the loan is -- it's zero, but for the -- for the Indigenous student, if they want to live off campus because due -- it's -- you know, it's not their fault because there's limited accommodation available for them. So if they do go and then they apply for a loan, so what is the highest loan that the NWT SFA gave to the Indigenous students for taking programs in Yellowknife, especially in Yellowknife, you know, with the high rent. So what's the highest student loan or that loan that they give -- it's not a remissible loan that -- I am not talking about the remissible loan. I am talking about another loan to offset the high cost of living.

Thank you to the Member. To the Minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, the highest loan, so the repayable loan, is the additional $1,400 a month, and the loan cap overall for students is $90,000. Thank you.

Thank you to the Minister. To the Member, Monfwi.

The other -- the $90,000 you're talking about but that's not available for the Indigenous students? That's for -- that's a remissible. Because we do have SFA already. So do we qualify for that loan as well? Thank you.

Thank you to the Member. To the Minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So the loan limit for students incorporates any form of loan that they have. So if they have a remissible loan and a repayable loan, it's all found within that $90,000 limit. And as they pay it down, it allows them to continue to incur more loan funding under that amount. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. To the Member, Monfwi.

So as Indigenous students, did they use up to the capacity or up to the 90,000? Thank you.

Thank you to the Member. To the Minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, the loan limit for all students is $90,000. There is an unlimited amount of semesters for Indigenous students, so the semester portion is a grant and then on top of that it's the -- the remissible loan and the repayable loan. As students return to the territory, that remissible loan naturally comes down and as they repay their repayable loan, then the repayable loan portion comes down. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. To the Member, Monfwi.

Thank you. I know that Indigenous students are not going to use up the $90,000 loan because we're already getting remissible loan, you know. So we're not -- that doesn't -- we're not eligible for that. But we can get the other loan that we have to pay. A remissible loan doesn't qualify for the Indigenous students. So that's why I am just asking. So if for loan default, I know that if the students skip, they have to pay every dollar that they borrow because of the supplementary grant, basic and supplementary. So if a student get a loan, so they have to pay every dollar that they borrow. It's not like remissible loan where non-Indigenous or non-treaty apply for that loan, half is remiss. And that doesn't apply to the Indigenous students because when I was a student and I have to pay. We have to pay. And there are other students that I talked to said the same thing. Because the money -- the amount of money they were receiving didn't even cover their rent so they had to get an extra loan, and they have to pay all of it back, so. And some of them, if they didn't -- did that, because of the limited jobs and then for whatever reason, like, some of their loan went to the collections and that affected their credit rating. So that is another reason why some of the Indigenous young people said they don't want to go for that loan even though it's there to help them, but because of that they said no. Some of them put off -- put off their education or find other ways to get their training. So it would have been nice if -- if they -- if they could be treated the same as the remissible loan. But they don't qualify for the remissible loan. So that was the only reason why I was asking, and -- but I mean, it's something that, you know, we still have time so there's still room for improvement, so I will be talking about that. It's -- it's not just for now. It's -- it's going to be -- maybe I will do another Member's statement on some of these programs that's in place.

But with income support assistance, and my colleague talked about the productive choice, with the mine closure -- I mean, the income support assistance or income assistance program has remained the same from 2025-2026 with -- you know, in the upcoming fiscal year too, and with the mine closure, do you think this $44 million is enough? Thank you.

Thank you to the Member, Monfwi. To the Minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we endeavour to make sure that we are seeing more funding flow out of education, culture and employment for workforce development training dollars rather than through income assistance and want to make sure that if we have residents of this territory who want to work and are looking for opportunities that we're working closely with businesses, Indigenous development corporations, and residents themselves to support them, to find opportunities within the territory, and then also even working, for example, with opportunities within Nunavut. So there are other mines operating in Nunavut that are working -- are looking for workers, and making sure that we're making those connections so that ultimately people can stay employed and stay in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. I will allow one more question there to the Member of Monfwi if you can make it a little bit shorter for the time allowed and to the question on this activity.

Yeah, well, income support assistance program and with the mine closure, this is where the bridging program is really -- like, I mean, SFA needs to change their policy to accommodate many of our people that are employed. They've been out of school for many years some of them, and some of them may not want to go to Aurora College. And I don't think a lot of them don't want to go on the income support assistance because they've been self-sufficient and, you know -- and income support it's not an option for them for a lot of them, you know, because they have -- they have mortgages, they have -- not -- you know, they have other payments. So asking them to go on income support, it's really gonna be -- it's -- they have -- you know, they have pride because they live -- they make -- they work for a living. So that's why the bridging program needs -- the policy needs to change to accommodate people that are coming from the mine industry that have been absent from school for so many years and that -- you know, maybe they want to go south to take some programs and not limited to -- only to the Aurora College OCAP and UCAP. Thank you. It's just more of a comment. Thank you.

Thank you to the Member. Aside from the comment, are there any further questions? Seeing none, does committee -- okay, no further questions. Please turn to page 48.

Education, Culture and Employment, income security, $71,099,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. Thank you. Moving on to labour development and standards on page 51, with information items on 53 to 55. Are there any questions?

To the Member, Great Slave and Yellowknife North.

Okay, that makes it sound like we're gonna do battle, Mr. Chair, but I will go first.