Alfred Moses

Thank you. Mr. Chair. As it was a recommendation that came out of the reports on junior kindergarten, we should have that information by the end of the calendar year. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

During those recommendations it was also brought forward that a review of the minimum wage would happen every two years. So seeing how we're coming up into the second year, June 1, 2017, we will do another review of the minimum wage, we will look at recommendations that were brought from the last report, and once again go out and engage and consult with all the stakeholders that were on the Minimum Wage Committee previous.

We went before committee in July. There was no concerns then when we presented this information, the information that was brought forward. As I said, low income families are getting more money. I don't understand, but, if Members and committee wants to have another presentation, we can walk through it.

Each family is going to be different. As we do the formula funding, it's going to be unique to each family in each situation based on the family's age, the age of the children, the number of children in the household. If the Member wants to sit down, we can get one of our staff to sit down and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The introduction of a new Canada child benefit prompted all provinces and territories to look at their respective social programs. As a territory, what we did was we looked at our social programs, and the outcome was that we wanted to make sure that all income that was intended for children went to the children. So what we did, we made some of those changes. Some of those changes included the introduction of the community cost adjustment. Some of those calculations were based on net family income, as well as the number of children that are in the household and the age...

Yes, we can get those preliminary results, we can also look at maybe developing a survey to our small businesses. I know it was a big concern when we're going through the review and also having those discussions in this House in the previous government about the minimum wage and the impact it would have on small business. But we can try to get that information and contact some of our stakeholders who gave that input and share it with committee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Currently, our minimum wage in the Northwest Territories is $12.50 an hour. Back in the 17th Assembly, 2014, the Minimum Wage Committee was setup of government officials, the business sector, non-governmental organizations, as well as some representatives from our most northern communities that sat down also with the NWT Chamber of Commerce and NWT Federation of Labour. They had their discussions and recommendation made to the government was that we increase our minimum wage from $10.00 an hour to $12.50 an hour, and I believe on June 1, 2015 it took effect. Thank you...

As I said, when the federal government introduced the new Canada child benefit dollars and plan, we had to go and make the changes, as well. We came up with some changes like the community cost adjustment, which adjusted a lot of the way we funded families, and we also, one of those things was the food allowance rates for adults and for mature children, at 18.

At the bottom line, Mr. Speaker, is, when we made those adjustments, all the families are getting more money. As I mentioned, we wanted to make sure that everything was going right and smoothly. We did a review of 171 families. Of those...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we are up-to-date, in fact, we're actually looking at making further changes to our NWT Income Assistance Act to include the NWT child benefit. So, in reality, from the federal government's introduction of the new Canada Child Benefit and the changes that we initially made, we're going to go one step further and make changes to the Income Tax Act and not include the NWT child benefits, so now families with low income to moderate income will start to receive more dollars in their pockets. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It's been about 16 months since we implemented the new minimum wage throughout the Northwest Territories. I'm sure we have some information, some data. As well, you know, we do continue to promote our income assistance program and also any support that we can give to low income families that might need some assistance. But we can look at trying to get some of that preliminary information and share it with Members. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As I mentioned, Aboriginal Head Start is a federally funded program, so I think what we can do out of our department is reach out to our federal counterparts and see why it's only a three-month contract and can do that work on behalf of the Members to see why it's only a three-month program moving forward.