Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up on my Member’s statement on the federal government revisiting the Canada old age security and reforming it. I’d like to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment about what is the Minister and our government doing today to protect the NWT seniors from any negative impacts resulting from the federal changes to the old age security system. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We are closely monitoring what the federal move is on the old age pension. That’s been a controversial issue at the national level. We, as the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, do provide assistance to, as the Member indicated, income support clientele. If the move goes forward as we’ll probably see, we need to prepare our department. We need to prepare the GNWT on the repercussions of the decision that is going to be made. We will be closely monitoring what the decisions are going to be. Mahsi.
I would like to know, has our government made any contact recently to make sure that we have some input at the federal level. I would like to know what changes are likely to be needed in our own support of seniors when the federal government changes the old age security rules. Thank you.
There is ongoing discussion with the federal counterparts, with our colleagues out there, and we do stress our concerns as well. But at the end of the day, the decision is the federal decision, and again, we have to be prepared for the decision that will come down and if we need to make changes to our policy, then we definitely need to look at those that will impact the two-year span that we’re talking about from 65 to 67. Again, we will monitor the decision that is coming down from the federal government. Mahsi.
I would like to know what is the likely cost impact on our government of the changes to the old age security system. Has the Minister taken the time to assess what the changes will really mean financially to our system? Thank you.
This is a real recent decision that is going to be coming down and we haven’t really figured out the repercussions or the impacts in the Northwest Territories. We will be working on the potential impacts and we can share that information with the Members. Mahsi.
I think the real impact is that the rest of Canada, they do have, the seniors have the ability to continue working if they wish, and I think that was one of the biggest concerns of the federal government. However, in our remote and small communities, seniors don’t have that option, yet they will be impacted the same. So they’ll have to wait an additional two years is the concern. I’d like to ask the Minister if he will raise this aspect with the federal government that once again our needs in the North are unique.
Yes, most definitely we will be raising our concerns. As the Premier has met with the Prime Minister and Miltenberger met with the Finance Minister, both are discussions we continue to have with the federal Ministers to raise our concerns.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much there, Mr. Speaker. Just, once again, the financial aspects will be huge for our government. What is this government doing to make sure that we have money to take care of our seniors in the future? Thank you.
If there are changes, we will definitely come back to the standing committee and talk about potential impacts and how we can deal with that in due time. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
