Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I made a statement today on income security programs. I’d like the Minister to give us a little more detail on income… He indicated income assistance clients will receive more money for food and incidental expenses.
Can the Minister indicate what the level of increase will be and what the increases over the next four years will be? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The increases are for food, clothing and other incidental expenses to ensure clientele receive adequate benefits to meet their needs and that it stays current with the high cost of living in the Northwest Territories. I can provide that detailed information to the Member on the actual cost of each factor and we’re willing to provide that to the Member. Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, I’m wondering if the increases over the next four years that the Minister indicated, are those a percentage, like we’re seeing a CPI index there, or do we have a specific percentage that we’re expecting? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
It is a combination. We’re dealing with the cost of living in the Northwest Territories and the high costs in especially the small, isolated communities. We felt that there’s a need for increase in our overall subsidy program with income assistance. It is based on a combination of a percentage of CPI within the Northwest Territories, and this is the feedback that we received from the general public and organizations, that it’s time for an increase. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
My next question is about the second part of the Minister’s statement about the market housing units that they’re going to be renting, I guess, for income security clients.
Can the Minister give me an indication, we’re transferring that to Housing, but that’s money that we used to provide to income clients? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The funding that has been allocated is to subsidize the rentals in the Northwest Territories. There are some units that are high costs to manage. We’ve had some challenges with having a public unit available. So, we are partnering and transferring our funding to the NWT Housing Corporation so we can have a coordinated approach to have these market housing units available in Yellowknife and surrounding communities, as well, for income support clientele. So, those are some of the discussions that we’ve been having, and we’ve joined forces and now we’re moving forward and delivering 75 public housing units into the Northwest Territories. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My next question would be: Is the department looking at expanding this concept of the market housing into other communities, other than to regional centres and Yellowknife? Will they be implementing this into some of the smaller communities maybe on a request basis?
As you know, this is very preliminary. We need to do an analysis of the small communities as well. So far the transferring of the administration of the funding through the NWT Housing Corporation will give us an indication if it’s meeting the needs of our clientele. If it’s working successfully, then, by all means, we’ll be open to having discussions and possibly working with the Housing Corporation in other small communities as well. Those are just some of the discussions that we need to have down the road. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
