Jackson Lafferty

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to advise Members of this House that starting on June 1, 2015, the minimum wage in the Northwest Territories is going up.

The minimum wage in the NWT will increase from $10 per hour to $12.50 per hour, making it the highest in Canada today. This is the first increase to the minimum wage in the Northwest Territories since 2011.

In 2013 I appointed a Minimum Wage Committee consisting of business, non-governmental organizations and other community representatives, which included the NWT Chamber of Commerce and the Northern Territories Federation of Labour.

This decision to...

I’m glad the Member is asking that pointed question. It is one of the key topics that I shared with Minister Glover just last week while we were in Ottawa and stressed that the Aboriginal language programming has not increased over the last decade. Those are just some of the areas that we have been pushing since I came on board in 2007.

I am very optimistic that there will be a funding increase. We’re working very closely with the federal government. In this particular area, $1.5 million to $3.4 million, that’s our GNWT funding that has been dispersed into Aboriginal government. At the same...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Part of the plan is in 2014-15 that the regional Aboriginal governments will be receiving a contribution from our department. There is an increase in contributions from $1.5 million to $3.48 million for them to hire their own coordinator and to look after the languages programming at the community level. The Member is quite correct; we need to focus on those Aboriginal groups who are the experts in the field and they can provide more feedback and more positive results. Those are just some of the areas that we have explored and we have continued to provide those...

We’ve been told over and over from Aboriginal governments, community governments and especially the elders that we must preserve our language and also our cultural way of life. Based on that, we have been working very closely with Aboriginal governments to provide them greater flexibility, accountability and also decision-making authorities to revitalize our language, strengthen our languages as well. Those are some of the key points my department will be working on with Aboriginal governments. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

We are making drastic changes to our contributions even before big changes from previous years. Some of the areas that we’ve transferred on to Aboriginal governments… There are approximately seven different areas of initiatives that we’ve transferred, working very closely with the community governments, and that is languages program, regional and community-based Aboriginal literacy activities, there are Aboriginal language acquisition projects, $93,000 of $143,000 budgeted. There are teaching and learning centres that we have to deal with through education authorities. There’s also Aboriginal...

That all depends on the circumstances. If an individual client presents, say, a suggestion to us, then we will seriously look at it. From the general public, if there is more than one policy that they want us to make some amendments to, those are areas we will seriously consider looking at. When the Member is asking if we change the whole overall policy within the GNWT Income Assistance program, I believe at this point we haven’t amended all policies within GNWT, but those are areas we are looking at from the feedback we receive from the public. Mahsi.

The Income Assistance program is based on need. All participants must demonstrate their financial needs as set out in the program legislation and regulations and also policies that we have to ensure all people are treated fairly across the Northwest Territories in a consistent manner. So when an individual has an RRSP – most of the Income Assistance clientele do not have anything – so we must be fair to that clientele. That is part of the reason we have regulations in place, polices in place.

We do make changes over time. We’ve made some drastic changes to income security in 2007 and 2011. We...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Minister Elaine Taylor, who’s here with us today from the Yukon and Minister responsible for Language, she’s also francophone and she’s also Minister of Culture and Deputy Premier as well. So I just wanted to welcome her. Thanks for being here with us.

Also in the gallery is Mr. John Stephenson, who’s here with us from YK1. I’d like to recognize him, he’s the chair. Mahsi.

Every opportunity that we have to review and make changes to our policies within income security programming, we’ve made changes along the way in 2007 and 2011. Now we’re onto 2014-2015. This is based on the feedback that we’ve received from clientele themselves and also the general public. We’re always open to those ideas, input and feedback. I will be presenting to standing committee on the changes that are coming in 2014-2015. We will update the standing committee. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Income assistance provides adequate benefits to clients, while considering household income as a family resource. Clients are expected to avail themselves of all financial resources. We’ve done that for so many years now.

RRSPs are considered to be a rainy day fund. As such, they should be used prior to accessing IA, income assistance, but the Registered Education Savings Plan and Disabilities Savings Plan are not counted as income. So these are just some of the rules that we have.

We must be financially responsible and also adhere to the rules of this House and the Auditor...