Mr. Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment report its Income Assistance client survey results annually as a performance measure in the departmental business plan. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister for the response. I can appreciate that. I understand that the government is going to be working on an action plan. I think he referenced that he’s going to encourage other stakeholders to develop action plans as well. From my recollection – I’m testing my memory here – I think there’s up to 29 different groups who have had a hand in, at some point in time or another, in terms of the Anti-Poverty Strategy with input.

So these various organizations all deal with people who are involved in a situation of poverty, assisting them and so on. These groups, as well, are not...

Mr. Chair, I move that this committee recommends that as the Department of Education, Culture and Employment introduces its revised Child Care User Subsidy within the Income Assistance program, it should develop clear guidelines that are consistent with program requirements and clearly communicate these requirements to front-line staff and potential applicants. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to acknowledge Frame Lake constituent Mr. Ian Legaree, director of sport, recreation and youth with our Department of Municipal and Community Affairs. Ian, yesterday, received the Dave Ramsden Career Excellence Award. This is the most prestigious of the awards presented at the annual Premier’s Awards ceremony and it recognizes the outstanding achievements of an individual with 20 or more years of experience in the GNWT public service. Congratulations, Ian. Well deserved.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to make some general comments on all of these motions. I think it’s important that we state how much effort the committee put into the consideration of this report. There was a great deal of detail that the Auditor General presented to committee in the report and committee considered it at length and quite carefully. I think the number of motions that have come out of this report are an indication of the concern that committee had for the findings in the Auditor General’s report.

I realize the late hour. I would speak to some other motions, but I think I will...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Auditor General’s report was tabled in the Legislative Assembly on March 7, 2013. This year’s performance audit focused on four income security programs delivered by the Northwest Territories Department of Education, Culture and Employment (ECE): Income Assistance, Student Financial Assistance, the Child Care User Subsidy, and the Senior Home Heating Subsidy.

All of these programs are directly related to the 17th Assembly’s goal of “healthy, educated people free from poverty.”

In the past, northern indigenous peoples survived by following traditional laws of sharing...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Committee would like to consider Committee Report 5-17(4).

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am very glad that this motion has come forward and I’d like to thank the mover and the seconder for bringing it to the floor.

I’ve spoken to the issue of new resource revenues, yesterday, when I was speaking to the devolution motion and the debate that we had there. This motion particularly identifies four areas where these resource revenues should go. Certainly, one-quarter is going to aboriginal governments and I find no fault with that whatsoever.

The other three areas I think need to be debated. I don’t necessarily agree with these four priorities as they are laid...

From what I hear from the Minister, it sounds as though there is no standard. When an application comes in, there is no turnaround time of, say, five days, from the time that it is received on the desk to when I as a worker have to send it back out. I would suggest to the Minister that that is not a good situation.

He has heard many complaints from Members, and I am sure he’s heard from residents as well. I would like to know whether or not the Minister has done an evaluation of the workload in the Inuvik office to determine whether or not there is adequate staff there. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, thanks to the Minister again. We made a change to the process of health card renewals. It started, I understand, in December of 2012 or January of 2013. Prior to making that change, I would like to know from the Minister what other jurisdictions were reviewed to set up this new health card renewal process. How did we evaluate what we were doing and what we are now currently doing? What other jurisdictions were canvassed to see what kind of a system would be best for us? Thank you.