Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Mr. Speaker, I applaud the Minister in terms of the announcement of increasing the minimum wage in the Northwest Territories. However, the next day, Mr. Speaker, I had a question from a single mother of three. She has young daughters. She was reading the press release and had some concerns. They wanted to ask the question in terms of the wage increasing, the cost of living increasing. Are the income thresholds going to increase with the GNWT programs that he administers?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we increased the minimum wage just this past week and it is scheduled for April of this year; another one next year. Those are the areas that we are continuing to focus on right now. With respect to the other thresholds the Member is alluding to, we have increased the threshold in the seniors home fuel subsidy just recently. The policy is always changing, so those are things we need to consider. Mahsi.
I go back to the specific questions on increasing thresholds on GNWT programs, specifically to low cost housing. It’s staying the same and I’m not sure if this Minister can answer for another Minister. However, programs like that, Legal Aid, child support payments, those types of programs certainly help single parents out there. Is there some general type of communication plan that this Minister will put out in terms of thresholds of programs in the GNWT?
Yes, we do have a program available to community members, even on the website as well, even at the community level through regional representatives. With those, Mr. Speaker, they are available even to the Members. When there are changes in the programming or policies, then we do update the Members. So, with that, Mr. Speaker, the changes to the thresholds we talked about in the past, and as we go forward, we realize the high cost of living in the Northwest Territories, so we have to keep those in mind as well. We just increased the minimum wage. I think it was a good step in the right direction and we continue to improve our programs. Mahsi.
With regard to the question I am going to ask the Minister, this person does not qualify for low cost housing because their income is $5,000 too much. They probably won’t get a low cost housing unit. So this person has to go from pay cheque to pay cheque, paying $1,700 a month for rent, fuel is about $300 -- probably a little more in the small, isolated communities -- power is about $200, water is about $100, phone is about $40 and food and all that. How can we help a person like this, a mother of three daughters, with the example of low cost housing units?
Individuals like that with a family, we provide subsidies for income security programming. There are a variety of programs that we can certainly offer to those individuals. So, Mr. Speaker, we do what we can through the income security area. As I stated, there are always amendments to our current policies that we have on hand, but so far it’s been up to date to meet the standards of community needs. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to continue working with the Minister on this issue and probably many other issues or situations like this in the Northwest Territories. In terms of a situation like this, can he work with his counterpart Minister Robert C. McLeod and look at low cost housing units and their thresholds to help a person like this make a living in the North?
I will continue to work with my colleague, the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation, because we are transferring the program and we want to have a smooth transition along the way. So the subsidy programs are part of the process as well. We’ll do what we can to make that effective. Mahsi.
