Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The other day I had a constituent come forward to me with concerns regarding income support and the ability to have a telephone as an allowance expense that income support can help them with. Mr. Speaker, I am asking the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment why the policy of income support does not allow a person to have a telephone as an allowable expense when we consider that we provide expenses for daycare, shelter, food, clothing but when health and safety concerns could arise, a telephone is very important and that’s not considered an allowable expense. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The income security is for basic necessities of life where food, shelter and clothing are required. So we provide those services to those individuals that are on income support. A lot of clientele do have telephones in their home units. Some just have local calls, which of course is very cheap. Mr. Speaker, this is an area where we need to focus more on what we could provide as a shelter, food and clothing. That has always been the mandate of this government and we continue to deliver that same messaging as we roll out the program. We made some changes to the program in 2007; same thing, we increased those areas. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Time for question period has expired, but I’ll allow the Member a short supplementary. Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The person talking to me has high blood pressure, probably other heart-related problems. I’m not a doctor, so I’m not going to try to diagnose him, but they said what would happen in this particular case if they were starting to have a health attack in some manner that required immediate assistance and urgency. What do they do? They have no one to call because they have no phone. So they find it seems to be more than a luxury item. Why does the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, namely income support, define a telephone service, even a strapped phone that does not allow long distance calls, why are you defining it as a luxury service and not a necessity in this modern day? Thank you.
Again, we provide services and funding through shelter, food and clothing. Those are required necessities. So we continue to enhance those programs specifically to those areas. With the surplus that individuals may have, they can purchase phone services if they wish to do so. Mr. Speaker, we provide the basic necessities. That’s the very reason why we have income security, to provide those services in the Northwest Territories, the 33 communities that we service, to provide those basic necessities and we’ll continue to do that. Mahsi.
In many cases income support provides the cost of power at any cost, which runs into hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for that department. Again, they provide rental costs, actual costs which again run into hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Mr. Speaker, this is a health and safety lifeline which could help many families ensure that they are protected if something arises, whether it’s a health and safety issue due to personal health as I highlighted as an example, or what if there were domestic abuse problems? What do they do? Do they have to wait until somebody else finds them? Mr. Speaker, would the Minister be willing to investigate and do a cross-jurisdictional survey to see if this is a reasonable expense? Because I feel strongly that it is. Thank you.
Throughout the Northwest Territories we serve over 40,000 people, 33 communities. Not everyone has phones per se. As indicated in the past, where there are individuals that are working, they don’t even have phones sometimes, can’t afford it. It’s not only income support clientele. There is a variety of people who may have phones, but some don’t have phones for various reasons. Again, to reiterate, our program is for basic necessities: food, shelter and clothing. That’s what we’ve been providing over the years and we will continue to provide those services to the 33 communities that we service. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Income support is supposed to be the backstop of public policy if you are down and out due to whatever reason has brought you to that point. It’s to ensure you have the basic necessities and I agree with that, Mr. Speaker, but one of the programs in income support is to encourage people to get out there and get work. I’m quite curious on how a person on income support could make that type of contact with a potential employer without a phone call or to be waiting for that opportunity and to say that they have extra money, I would assure you that at least 80 to 90 percent on income support would say that there is no extra money, especially when you have children and certainly there would be no extra money for Internet again or a cell phone. So, Mr. Speaker, times have changed and I’m asking the department to change with the times and certainly recognize that. Mr. Speaker, would the Minister be willing to re-evaluate this particular case, take a look at cross-jurisdictions and recognize that the phone has become an integral part of basic service that we need as people, whether it’s getting jobs or staying in contact due to health and safety concerns if you ever had to call an ambulance? Would the Minister look at that?
Mr. Speaker, we can list a variety of areas where there are additional costs. There are not only phones; there are cell phones, TVs and others that are not really a necessity. I am glad the Member agrees that income security is an overall necessity that we provide services to.
Mr. Speaker, we have those clientele that have clientele service officers working closely with them. We know who the clientele are and we contact them through the clientele service officers and if there are issues or questions and concerns that are brought to their attention, there is a discussion. Communication is ongoing. So, Mr. Speaker, again we will continue to deliver those main essential services to the clientele. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Colleagues, before I go on with the orders of the day, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank a couple of Pages from Hay River North that have been here all week working with us. We have Skylar Constant and Logan Gagnier. Logan happens to be my oldest grandson. I’m very proud to have him here.
---Applause
I’d like to acknowledge a constituent of mine, Mark Stephens, in the gallery, who has been here as a chaperone all week. Great job, guys.
