Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I asked questions about late payments for SFA students. The Minister said that she will not pay them back even though we have a process for paying back income support late fees incurred on income support payments. Will the Minister work with her department to find what barriers exist to paying off these late fees so we can give our students a break? Thank you very much.
Thank you, Member for Range Lake. Minister of ECE.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's not an expectation that this would happen because it's not something that we account and fund for. I'm always happy to go back to the department and find out what kind of an economic cost this would have to our student financial assistance. That said, Mr. Speaker, it is not expected that student financial assistance covers the entire cost of post-secondary for our students. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I'm not asking for them to pay the entire cost. I'm asking them to pay for late fees incurred because of departmental holdups because they couldn't process these payments. This is an extraordinary occurrence. Will the Minister take extraordinary action and pay these students for their late fees? It's a very simple question, and it shouldn't be this controversial. We don't need a lot of policy change. Do the right thing; help our students out. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the answer to my first question I did say I'm always happy to go back to the department. And what I'm saying here, Mr. Speaker, is that it is expected that students have, from their summer student jobs, some dollars that they can afford to pay their tuition and then student financial assistance comes back and supports them. This is not a regular occurrence. The Member is absolutely right. And I am doing what I can to ensure that we are following up and making sure that processes are as efficient as possible. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of ECE. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, who is responsible for the delays that incurred the late fees - was it the students working their summer student jobs and being late in applying, or was it the department that didn't have capacity to meet the demand that was late getting out? Can the Minister just clarify who is responsible for incurring the late payments, because I'm confused. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are some students whose applications are late, some students whose applications are on time, and staff within the department do their best to process all applications as quickly as possible. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of ECE. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.
