[Witness spoke in Inuktitut, interpreted as follows:]
Thank you for your question.
The students from smaller communities don't have access to social assistance. It is harder for them to get social assistance.
[English]
The way we work within the programs, we have to ensure that they have the same accessibility you would see in our regional campuses, but it's not always at par. Part of the work we are doing is to try to increase the number of student supports we have and to support our students even if it comes down to food insecurity within their home. Obviously, many of our students are reliant upon student funding, student financial assistance, while they're attending school. We all know that the cost of living continues to increase and the cost of food continues to increase, so when you're living with a family in a smaller community where those food costs are so high, we're trying to ensure we have those supports available for them too.
Our students come from many walks of life, from many home situations. Ensuring that we have adequate mental health supports in place for them as well is also a challenge within some of the smaller communities.
These are things we're constantly reviewing. We're looking at them and trying to figure out how we can make them more accessible. We can make the programs accessible, but if they don't have the supports in place, then that's going to impact how they make it through those four to five years of study.