SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
New financial incentives offered to students to encourage them to stay or return to the territory after they graduate are a step in the right direction, but should have happened sooner according to Daryl Dolynny.

The GNWT has announced new financial incentives to keep students studying and living in the territory but Range Lake MLA Daryl Dolynny says it should have happened sooner. - NNSL file photo

The MLA for Range Lake said he thinks there's merit in offering more money to keep students living in the NWT after their schooling is complete, but MLAs have been asking for it for a long time.

"We've been trying to tell them, we've got to re-evaluate (Student Financial Assistance) SFA from the ground up," he said. "Years ago SFA had a certain value and I think students took advantage of that. At the end of the day it made much more sense to return to the North than to pay off their loans and get remissible loans. But because we didn't keep up with the times a lot of other jurisdictions modernized their lending programs, a lot of companies were basically offering incentives to graduates, offering to pay off their loans. There was really no incentive to return to the North. So we lost that advantage."

The Department of Education, Culture and Employment has announced they're upping those incentives starting in September, and Andy Bevan, assistant deputy minister of Labour and Income Security, said it's a robust set of benefits aimed at convincing residents to get as much education as they can and to stay in the territory after they graduate.

"All students who are eligible - and are Northern residents prior to receiving their studies - receive a basic grant," he said. "So, what we've done is we've just announced an increase to the basic grant. It's gone from $1,925 to $2,400 (per year) and for books from $400 to $550 (per year). This is the major part of the contribution we provide to students because obviously we want our populace to be as educated as possible. Truly these levels of benefits are the best in the country."

Bevan said the territory was competing with employers in other provinces and territories to retain employees, and the incentives are designed to make the territory as attractive as possible to students. He said it contributes to the GNWT's plan to increase the population by 2,000 people in five years.

"Part of our mandate is to make sure ... our labour market meets the needs of Northern employers," he said. "And the way to do that is to encourage as many of our post-secondary students to come back."

Bevan said they've removed the 20-semester limit a student can be funded for.

"We're removing that limit now," he said. "At the end of the day the other benefit to this is that if somebody previously got the maximum amount of benefits and couldn't access the program anymore, now we're saying they can come back and either through remission or repayment they can go back now and access the program for continuing education."

Bevan said the territory is also increasing the rate of remissible loans so students - in Yellowknife for example - will be forgiven $6,000 per year as opposed to the old rate that was $4,000 per year.

Students from Fort Simpson, Fort Smith, Hay River, Hay River Reserve, Inuvik and Norman Wells will be forgiven $8,000 yearly off their loans, while students from smaller communities of Aklavik, Behchoko, Colville Lake, Deline, Enterprise, Fort Good Hope, Fort Liard, Fort McPherson, Fort Providence, Fort Resolution, Gameti, Jean Marie River, Kakisa, Lutsel k'e, Nahanni Butte, Paulatuk, Sachs Harbour, Trout Lake, Tsiighetchic, Tuktoyaktuk, Tulita, Ulukhaktok, Wekweeti, Whati and Wrigley will be forgiven $12,000 per year.

Bevan said the loan remission rates in the communities are higher because the territory wants to encourage residents to get out of the population centres.

"The difference in the rates is to encourage our residents to get out of the capital region," he said.

The incentives also include a zero per cent interest rate for students returning and residing in the territory, and an annual $2,000 Northern bonus to be applied against student loan debt for NWT and southern students living in the territory, said Bevan.

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