ECE to improve staff training to avoid another SFA backlog

The GNWT says it will offer more training to staff who administer Student Financial Assistance after students faced months-long delays receiving payments.

While the territory won’t change how the program is administered, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment said it will work to ensure additional resources can be employed during high-demand periods, spokesperson Agata Gutkowska said.

Education minister Caitlin Cleveland said in October the department had added five positions to help handle an increase in SFA applications.

The program offers grants and loans to post-secondary students to help pay for things like tuition, books and travel.

In August, the GNWT said it was experiencing “an exceptionally high volume of applications and emails” due to a nearly 20-percent rise in the number of applications over the same period in 2024.

However, data shared by the department shows only a modest rise in the overall number of applications received for the academic year, indicating only a periodic surge in applications received over the summer.

Over the 2024-25 academic year, the education department received 1,904 SFA applications and approved 1,433.

So far, 1,936 applications have been received and 1,367 approved for the 2025-26 academic year, though some are still being received and processed.

Data on how long students waited for their SFA payments in 2025 isn’t available, Gutkowska said.

“The SFA program is guided by established service standards, which are targets that support timely service,” Gutkowska said. “Under these standards, on‑time applications are assessed within 25 business days after all required information has been received, and late applications are assessed within 90 days.”

Payments are issued within 10 business days of receiving all required documents, Gutkowska said. 

More than six-month wait

Kaydens Abel, a psychology student at Thompson Rivers University, said she applied for funding through the territory’s SFA program before the June 30 deadline for students beginning their studies in September.

When she didn’t receive a response, she resubmitted her application in July and August.

While she waited, she said her family stepped in to help cover things like rent and part of her tuition. Funding from the Yellowknives Dene First Nation also helped her cover some living expenses, Abel said.

By the time her funding arrived in December, she was already four months into her studies, having accumulated more than $200 in late fees owed to her university.

That sum remains outstanding, she said, but she hopes the territorial government will help her pay it off.

In October, Range Lake MLA Kieron Testart asked the GNWT to reimburse any late fees that students incurred as a result of the government’s delay.

At the time, education minister Caitlin Cleveland said reimbursing students for late fees was not something for which the department had budgeted, though she “would go back to the department and find out what kind of economic cost this would have to our Student Financial Assistance.”

“We’re focusing on getting those dollars out to students, even students who had their applications in late. I know that stuff comes up, and it is my number-one priority to see those payments flow and those applications be processed,” Cleveland said.

Earlier this month, Testart announced in a Facebook post that those who incurred late fees as a result of the administrative backlog would be eligible for reimbursement.

To be eligible for reimbursement, Gutkowska students must have:

• applied for full-time financial assistance before the June 30 deadline;
• had their payment delayed due to administrative reasons outside the student’s control (not because an application was incomplete or for other reasons);
• documentation that confirms a late fee was charged for the term in which the SFA payment was delayed; and
• paid the late fee without it having been waived by the academic institution.

Supporting documentation could include an invoice or other statement indicating a late fee was charged, as well as proof of late fee payment such as a receipt.

Those seeking reimbursement should email [email protected] and provide all required documents by March 4. Requests sent after that date will not be accepted, Gutkowska said.