Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

Colville Lake (Sept 03/01) - A law student from Colville Lake says she will have to go it alone after being denied funding under a regional settlement agreement.

Jennifer Duncan, who left for Vancouver last week to enter second-year law at the University of British Columbia, says Sahtu Secretariat Incorporated has cut her off after receiving funding for the last two years.

Jennifer Duncan, a second-year law student from Colville Lake, left to attend classes at the University of British Columbia last Friday. She says she will have a hard time making ends meet this year after being denied funding by Sahtu Settlement Corp. - Mike W. Bryant/NNSL photo

"It was a complete shock to me," says Duncan, who as an undergraduate at the University of Alberta received honours with first class standing, and is now on her way to becoming a lawyer. "There are no other students going to law school in the Sahtu."

Duncan applied for funding from the Settlement Corp. last July. Previously, she says she paid her way through school using scholarships and money she saved up over the summer.

When she discovered that there was education funding available through the Settlement Corp., she applied to them and they paid her way through school the last two years.

This year, she says, the district committee that approves education funding for Fort Good Hope and Colville Lake -- the Yamoga Training Committee -- had her jumping through hoops from the get go.

"I got a phone call back from SSI saying I needed a letter of decline from SFA in order to get funding," says Duncan.

After contacting the appropriate sources at student financial assistance and explaining her case, she received a rejection letter, but even after that, she was still denied funding by the Yamoga Training Committee.

She received a letter from the committee dated Aug. 20, stating: "The committee felt that to go on sponsoring one law student continuously is a substantial amount of money and feel these funds can be spent to send more students out for training or providing a training program here in the district."

Now without SFA funding -- the deadline for applications was July 15 -- or Settlement Corp. money she says she will have to foot most of the $10,000 plus she in expenses this year herself.

She says while an undergraduate student, she was able to pay the bills, but now that she is in considerably more expensive law classes, she will have difficulty making ends meet.

Tom Forbes, who sat on the committee that rejected her application, says much of Duncan's problems were brought on by herself.

"Generally, they (students) go to SFA, as a last resort they go to us," says Forbes. "There's lots of options and she hasn't explored them. That's what we advised her last year."

He also said that the committee's say is not final, and she can appeal their decision with the Settlement Corp. if she likes.

For her part, Duncan says she has no plans to appeal, but she will write the Settlement Corp. a letter outlining her concerns.

Even though she is entitled to GNWT Student Financial Assistance, Duncan says she never claimed it on principle -- that she would rather claim funding tied to the 1993 Sahtu land claim settlement than revenue collected by the GNWT.

"This [Sahtu Secretariat Incorporated] is a land claims organization and I'm a beneficiary," says Duncan. "It's partly mine so why not access that. Education is supposed to be important in the Sahtu."