Every time Justice Minister Marian Horne makes the trip from Teslin to Whitehorse for work, she can bill taxpayers $105.

Each time a high school student from Teslin gets bused to Whitehorse to attend class – because Teslin is without a secondary school – that trip is subsidized to a maximum of $13.

Both travellers get 59.5 cents per kilometre, but MLAs' travel claims are not capped while students travel is, according to the Department of Education.

The Star learned of the inequity this week while investigating the travel expenses paid for high school students in Old Crow who journey to the Yukon's capital for their studies.

Currently, the government covers these students' plane fares to Whitehorse for the start of the school year, home and back for Christmas and March break, and finally returning to Vuntut Gwitchin territory for summer holidays

It's the equivalent of three roundtrip plane tickets, and last year, it cost the Education department $16,646 to shuttle approximately a dozen students between home and school.

But Darius Elias, Lib-Vuntut Gwitchin MLA, thinks the government should pay for Old Crow students to visit home for Thanksgiving and Easter too.

During this spring sitting of the legislature, Elias has pressed for the government to consider subsidizing these additional trips, but Education Minister Patrick Rouble said the government already does enough.

"It has certainly demonstrated its compassion and caring for these students,” he told the legislature Feb. 14.

"It has gone above and beyond to provide for return airfare to Old Crow in the situation where there is a death in the student's family.”

Speaking to the Star this week, Elias said Old Crow students are at risk of losing their culture and identity by attending high school in Whitehorse, and two extra trips to spend with their families are an investment in their well-being.

(In 2009/2010, Elias made 13 trips between Whitehorse and Old Crow at a cost of $7,746.39.)

"Already there's a transportation subsidy for a parent from Burwash (Landing) who chooses to travel in at Thanksgiving and Easter to pick up their child,” Elias said. "And they can get mileage for that transportation.”

That's partly correct, but only up to a maximum of $13 a day. And the same travel subsidy applies to Whitehorse high school students making the commute from Ross River, Beaver Creek, Destruction Bay and Carcross.

In the case of Dawson City, because the community has a secondary school, unless one is a student interested in attending special programs at the Wood Street School or École-Emilie Tremblay, the Yukon's only francophone school, the travel subsidy is unavailable.

The inequities continue. A francophone student from Dawson travelling to Whitehorse gets similar treatment to MLA Steve Nordick – either can bill the government $309.35 for the trip.

Wood Street students from Dawson, however, get the $13 subsidy, as do high school students from Ross River, Carcross, Beaver Creek and Destruction Bay.

The "special exemption” of the cap for francophone students is "to recognize the rights” of French to study in their first language, said Cyndy Dekuysscher, director of finance for the Education department.

Michelle Royle, a spokeswoman for the department, told the Star in an earlier interview that secondary students from Beaver Creek and Destruction Bay can go to high school in Haines Junction, or can opt to make the longer trip to Whitehorse. Regardless, the trips are worth $13 in travel subsidies from the Education department.

When Lib-Kluane MLA Gary McRobb makes the 264-km trip from Whitehorse to Destruction Bay to visit with constituents, he can bill $157.08. Last year, McRobb claimed nearly $12,000 in expenses for going between capital city and his riding 48 times.

On the other side of the territory, when a student from Watson Lake attends special programming at the Wood Street School, that trip from the border town into Whitehorse garners a $13 subsidy.

For Watson Lake MLA and Premier Dennis Fentie, his commute to his corner office in Whitehorse costs the taxpayer $261.05.

Last year, the Education department paid a total of $75,339 in travel subsidies and living expenses worth $129,762 to 48 students, but could not provide information on where these students were travelling from to study in Whitehorse.

Students living in Whitehorse to attend secondary school can live at the dormitory at F.H. Collins Secondary School, or with family members, and are eligible for $270 a month in living expenses.