Robert Villeneuve

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm glad to hear that the Minister is looking forward to making some changes in the program. I just wanted to ask the Minister about some of the client information that trickles down to the grassroots level from the policies that are in the Income Support program. A lot of the income support officers in the communities don't have the information available to them to present to clients to make a lot of productive choices. They don't have information on human resource capacity building programs with the federal government; therefore, they can't pass them on to the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up on some of the issues that honourable Member Bill Braden has been raising with the Income Support program. I believe the Minister was talking about the program itself. I think that the program, the low income and the Income Support program today has to start focusing on what people need instead of what the government currently has to offer.

Just to follow up on the point I was making in yesterday's session, Mr. Speaker, about the option where the households all get to lose their eligibility for income support, when one member of the household...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the Minister for that response. I just wanted to ask the Minister what his feelings were toward…I know in the paper he stated that all these outstanding property taxes of residents of all the communities that haven’t been physically assessed to date are still outstanding and that the FMBS can’t even consider writing off these debts which don’t even come close to the amount of debts that this government has written off for corporations to date. When we’re talking a $100,000 write-off in taxation debts for a certain group of people, there is a larger group of...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just looking at the debts written off and the total of the bill of $576,000, it’s good to know that the debt will still be an outstanding amount in the government’s books, but there will be no interest accumulating and the government will still look for ways to collect the money.

I just wanted to comment on the Minister’s initiative at looking at providing names of directors of organizations who default on loans. I want to remind the Minister that I will support that initiative and I think it’s something we should do because the organizations all want to remain...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would be glad to meet with the Minister sometime to talk about some new policy initiatives that I would have in mind on how we could better support individuals' needs, as opposed to just offering people what the government has to offer. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the Minister for his response. Talking about costs of the program; Income Support beneficiaries and Income Support dollars have been going out to the recipients and beneficiaries and clients in the Tu Nedhe region. Actually, from 1999 to 2003 it has gone up by $50,000, Mr. Speaker. I don't think the program is designed to spend more money for income support, as the Minister has stated. Since 1999, there has been a lot of economic development in the Tu Nedhe region and in the surrounding regions in the NWT, and it seems like there's more Income...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this summer, July 13, 2004, I was privileged to hold a meeting in Deninu Kue with the Deninu Kue First Nations, the Metis Nation, the public and six Members of our Cabinet. I wanted to thank Premier Joe Handley, Ministers Bell, Miltenberger, McLeod, Dent and Krutko, for taking the time to visit and discuss many of the issues with the community leadership and the public.

Community leadership was very appreciative of this and looks forward to following up on some of the concerns brought forward. The public is also looking forward to having Minister Miltenberger...

Mahsi, Members. This decision was also reinforced by the silver lining of the whole experience that Chief Catholique offered later in the evening in that the oral history of the Lady of the Falls says that if you go to seek help from the Lady of the Falls, then your prayers will be better received and answered if only one spends the night at the falls, which many visitors heed that advice to this day. With that, Mr. Speaker, I am thankful that my prayers were answered by having the Lady of the Falls, along with some of the assistance of the Lutselk’e band manager, Irvin Norn, in keeping my...

...(inaudible)…benefit. I’m just wondering why this government is any different. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m glad to meet with the Minister to discuss some of the clients that have brought this matter to my attention.

Just on another note, Mr. Speaker, with regard to some of the applicant responsibilities in reference to their permanent handicap. In our Income Support program, the disability allowance is classified as an enhanced benefit. Our clients must meet -- and it states very clearly -- all of the following criteria to qualify for this allowance of $300 a month. There are eight bullets in those criteria. In the Alberta program, which is the Assured Income to the...