Charles Dent

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the department responds to comments, suggestions and criticisms that may come from non-government agencies or from standing committees of this House or Members of this House by checking to see whether or not the policies need to be revised or reviewed. So there is a constant process of examination to see whether or not the process that we undertake in the income support field is proper and adequate. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Could I have the question restated, please?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I expect that within a matter of weeks, the report, or at least the first draft of the report, will be delivered to my department and I would expect that we would start to -- if there are recommendations for approval -- act on this fairly quickly. It is not our intention, because if you want people to be able to respond openly and freely to this, they have to know that the information they are giving us is going to be kept confidential. There is no intention to release this report, otherwise you put people at risk for not feeling that they can freely participate in the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to make it clear that I never did offer Mr. Ramsay a copy of the report or a watered-down copy of the report. I did say to Mr. Ramsay that I would endeavour to advise him in a general manner, if I could, what some of the recommendations were. The report is one that will not be made public because of the implications to personnel. It’s personnel related. At this point, the report has been received by the department. Initially, as Mr. Ramsay said, it was received some time ago. It was referred to personnel at Stanton who had experience with this area and we had...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our standards for all programs are adjusted regularly, based on the cost of living. The cost of food is surveyed on a regular basis. The amount that is included in income support for food allowance is adjusted regularly. The same happens with the levels for the fuel subsidy. So I think that’s already being accomplished. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe that our system does allow families to support seniors to a much greater extent than what you would find in other jurisdictions, but I would be happy to review the situation with the Member and take a look at his specific recommendations and consider them. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member talked about the increase in payments in income support in the region. One of the things that have driven up the payments is that benefit levels have substantially increased since 1999. The amount that is paid for food, the amount that is paid for accommodation, all of those payments have gone up substantially since 1999. We have a very rich program in comparison to the rest of Canada. Is it rich to people who have to try and get by on it? No. It is a program of last resort. But, yes, the costs have gone up in some regions because the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there were program reviews in 1995, 1996, another one in 1996, three in 1998, a further one in 2001. Those were the formal ones. We have the ongoing ones. I have had some ongoing discussions with the Sanding Committee on Social Programs, as to the operation of our current Income Support program, and will continue to have that dialogue with them to find out their opinion on our programs and policies.

I am also committed to bringing forward to the standing committee a policy framework for income security and how this government delivers that to the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There’s not a lot that I can add to this that hasn’t already been provided, either in response to Mr. Menicoche or by Minister Roland just now. The programs are programs of the department that are application-based. They weren’t special programs. The issue is one of vigilance. You are always going to find once in awhile an agency that will go out of business owing money. You can’t ever have 100 percent certainty. We are fairly confident that procedures have been tightened up now so that the changes of it happening again are reduced. In terms of why this happened, I...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As well as the ongoing regular consideration of our programs and policies and the response to comments or criticisms, there have been, over the past five, six or seven years, a number of reviews of the program that have resulted in changes; for instance, the way in which we deal with those who have handicaps. They are now treated significantly differently than they were a number of years ago. The program has changed to respond to different needs and different circumstances. As I said, sometimes there have been formal reviews, more often the reviews have been as a...