Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I noted in my Member's statement today about the income support program and how it provides the basic programs support and it does just very that, like exactly that, the basics. But I also cited concerns about the fact that it's not designed to empower individuals to not only stabilize but to get ahead and get back on their feet and back being productive members in their own way, whatever that's defined as, as productive members back into society.
Mr. Speaker, what can the Minister do to help change that attitude, perspective, and I'd say modus operandi, of the income assistance system to help empower people to get back on their feet, to get engaged in work, get into counselling, and get ahead. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that is a great question from the Member, and I want to warn you that the answer is not very straightforward. So I'm going to start there, sorry.
Mr. Speaker, Education, Culture and Employment, through income assistance, does have client navigators. Those client navigators hold the role not only of assessing the basic needs of a client, as the Member said, of a resident, but they also can refer people to things like income assistance, career development officers, business development officers, etcetera. And some of the programs that the career development officers have at their fingertips in ECE which, by way, is right across the hallway here at headquarters, of everybody has access to, are things like the skills development program which is financial supports to help people participate in programming to upgrade or develop in essential employability skills. This is $26,000 for up to 52 weeks. There is also student financial assistance. There's the wage subsidy program which funds employers to hire NWT residents with minimal work experience or education by offsetting the cost of hiring and training. This, Mr. Speaker, is up to $30,000 in wage subsidies plus $500 in special equipment costs. And then there's also the community training partnerships, and this empowers organizations to access financial support to deliver local activities aimed for the community to increase skill development, including workplace essential skills. And then there's also our wage subsidy programs, Mr. Speaker. So we do have a host of programs to support just exactly what the Member is speaking to. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister capturing the whole ECE budget, and I'm not sure there was a page left unspoken about. My question was nowhere near about any of -- most of that. I wouldn't say all of it, but I will say most of it. My question is really about the income support program specifically targeting to help individuals get through the system. They are data entry folks, not social workers. I've used the generic phrase navigator. Perhaps that's my fault, and I acknowledge that. Essentially I'm trying to say is what type of support does the income assistance offices, the clients who work with the people day-to-day, work to empower individuals to get them back regularly into the workforce, day-to-day process of living life and contributing? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member is right; they're not social workers but they do a very good job at the work that they do and they're very committed to the work that they do. They are committed to making sure that they let residents know what opportunities there are because there are other people in communities and other people within departments who do have things like access to the programs that I spoke about and who also have access to different workshops that are happening in communities. So, for example, Prosper NWT has delivered workshops to over 150 people last year. So there are numerous things happening in communities. And what some of these programs that I'm talking about also highlight is that there's other opportunities that are able to happen. But none of this work happens in a vacuum or with one person or even with the GNWT only. It really is all of community, and so that's why I really appreciated the Member bringing that up, is because it allowed me to highlight some of these programs that really are part of our success story. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, again, perhaps it's a bad question in the sense of I'm not focusing in enough because what I'm finding is the income support workers -- at least we agree that they're not social workers. But, you know, it's not a system that encourages in a manner of making it part of the program to get them to seek counselling, get them to go to job fairs, get them to show productive choices. It's literally show up, drop your paperwork, and then you qualify. I'm saying let's turn that around by making it part of the income support or income assistance program that they must be involved in engagement because I find that people once they get into income support, they tend to have an extremely difficult time getting out of it. And I'm seeing nods around the room, Mr. Speaker. That's the type of counselling, social work, support network needs to be part of the program, not a good suggestion. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, some of the changes that were made in the last term, one of them was the removal of productive choices because it was found that people were often doing the same type of productive choice over and over again and wasn't necessarily leading to something that was helping people at the end of the day achieve their employment or education goals.
One of the changes, however, that was made was the ability of people to keep more earned income, encouraging people to go and pursue additional opportunities, but certainly prepared to have more conversations with members about productive choices or a variation of that and the future of income assistance programs in the territory. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Colleagues, I'm going to reiterate, I don't want preambles to go long, and I don't want your answers to go long. I understand these questions are important to both sides. Can we please be more succinct with your questions and that moving forward. Thank you.
Member from Range Lake.
