Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to turn to the topic of how income assistance is administered. The Auditor General’s 2013 report contains shocking findings about failures to service delivery, things like inconsistent treatment of clients and front-line workers performing many other duties without adequate supervision.
My focus today is the productive choices requirement for clients of income assistance. Productive choices placements are mandatory for all adults in the client’s household, although exceptions only apply to anyone who is disabled, over 60, or unfit to work because of a medical condition.
I’m not convinced the productive choices requirement is working effectively. For one thing, organizations are being unnecessarily burdened. One of the band councils in my riding has a core staff of three, and they are expected to provide work for clients of income support, but there isn’t always enough work for them to do. Besides that, staff members don’t have time to properly supervise them. The government is thrusting people into make-work situations and placing undue pressure on local organizations. It’s one more example of poor management.
Another problem is with the term “productive choices” itself. It implies that income support clients are personally at fault for their circumstances, that they must be steered away from unproductive choices. Income support clients don’t enjoy having to rely on the government to get by. It’s a tough way to live. If we examine things more closely, we find that it’s not a simple matter of personal choice. Maybe the person is living in a community with super high unemployment rates. Maybe they’re dealing with an addiction or some form of intergenerational trauma or maybe they’re a single parent facing the perennial struggle to combine child care duties and paid work.
A third problem is how the productive choices component is administered. Client services officers, or CSOs as they’re known, have too much discretion. On a case-by-case basis, CSOs determine where clients will be placed and how many hours a week they’ll spend at their placement. Things aren’t standardized, which isn’t fair to clients.
It’s time to review the productive choices component of the income support and consider policy changes. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
