Charles Dent

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this government respects and honours the seniors in the Northwest Territories. We’re probably the only government in Canada that provides this kind of fuel subsidy to our residents, but we don’t have money right now to make this a universal program and there are a lot of seniors who can afford to pay for their own fuel.

There are seniors who have had government jobs and have pensions. So not everybody is going to be treated exactly the same right now. The program is set up that we have to live within the money that was budgeted. It was approved by Members...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I've just been assured by the Minister of Justice that he will ensure that we have the regulation in time for students to get consideration this semester.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would agree with the Member that we need to do all that we can to encourage our students to pursue post-secondary. I was having trouble understanding why we had the arbitrary time limit in there when I first had it brought to my attention by Members and constituents in this House. So in August I asked the department to contact Justice about getting the regulation changed. As I understand it, it is in the process right now of being translated in Justice, so it's very close to finally being changed; probably within the next week or two.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I've said before, we're constantly prepared to review our programs. This was not put together because anybody said it wasn't working before. The reason for it was that this government has $125 million in direct subsidies to the residents of the Northwest Territories being delivered by a number of different departments. As part of the process to try and realign how our subsidy programs are offered to the public, we agreed, early on, that we would try and bring the programs together, and this is the first step and the first time that we've tried to do this. What...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said in the House yesterday, we have a very senior committee set up to take a look at this and it includes Mr. Polakoff who's the president of the Housing Corporation, and the deputy minister of ECE. They meet on a regular basis. We have brought together regional people from both the housing authorities, the Housing Corporation and ECE. When we find areas where there are problems, for instance on a recent tour through Mr. Pokiak's riding some problems came to light in Ulukhaktok. We sent a team in from both agencies to deal with the issues and try and resolve...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm quite prepared to look at the subsidy program as part of the income security review. That won't mean that it will happen this year, but it could perhaps happen in future years if Members of this House agree that that's where we should put our money. We have to keep reminding ourselves, though, that this program is not suffering because the cost of oil is going up. I mean, the people are not suffering because the cost of oil is going up. The program still provides them with the same amount of fuel no matter what the oil cost is. We provide the same number of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At this point we're not planning any changes for this winter's season. There may be changes that would be proposed as part of the income security review.

Just to let Members know that although we had a budget figure of $525,000 in last year's budget, actually expenditures for the program were over $1.1 million. We deliver the program no matter what the budget is, to make sure that the seniors are getting the same amount of fuel each year, no matter what it costs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document entitled Reflections Magazine, Summer 2006. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said, this government does respect and honour its elders. We don’t charge rent for seniors in social housing. We have increased, in this year's budget, the pension amount that we provide to seniors. We do provide a heating subsidy to seniors who are in need and our income support, as a means of last resort for seniors who need help. So, Mr. Speaker, I will continue to look at the program and see what we can do, but I don’t want to give the Members false hope that I have a lot of room to move. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Whether or not all of our seniors’ programs should be universal or whether or not they should be income tested is part of the process that we’re going through as we review our income security programs. I intend to discuss that sort of approach with the Standing Committee on Social Programs and Members of this Legislative Assembly as we come up with program design. The important thing to keep in mind will, of course, be the cost. We’re going to have to take a look at what we can do for program change with an existing cost and what we might be able to do if we’re able to...