Denny Rodgers

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement I spoke about the inspiring work initiated by the Indigenous governments in my region in providing food baskets and country foods to residents or beneficiaries up there. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Executive and Indigenous Affairs and our Premier. I know he's well versed in all things food security, and I'd like to ask him how is the Government of the Northwest Territories working with Indigenous government in the Inuvik region to address food security? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, Mr. Chair, my colleague from Range Lake is not wrong. Certainly I am a huge proponent of positions, particularly senior positions being not centralized in Yellowknife, but being in the regions, such as the regional director position, which I would love to see as an ADM position. I would love to see many ADM positions or any new ADM positions moved to the regions and/or new positions go to the regions. Having said that, I don't want to delete money from this budget. I know the department has done their diligence on why they want it. I do question and I would fight...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And, again, I apologize. I wasn't supposed to take this long. But, yeah, listen, our country is ran on the fact that if you make more, you pay more, and that's how our country's run, and I don't have an issue with that at all. Look at our tax brackets, and you can see that, Mr. Chair. But, again, I my only comment and I don't expect an answer is that I don't know why we have to be across the board with these things. We can look at individual programs and income testing differently as far as I'm concerned. But thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I understand that. But is that not the touch point? Is that not the issue that seems to be what's causing grief? Or is that someone for example, I've heard stories that are on income support and then I know this doesn't qualify for a higher income but then would take a I won't say menial, but a small parttime job on the weekends, then lose the income support benefits, then left with no benefits at all. So and then same applies for someone who's making that you know, what is a living wage? I mean, there's way more and you can't really compare us obviously to the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I won't stand between us and dinner. Just very briefly, two comments or two questions I guess.

The first one I guess from again, from listening and from what I understand about the extended health benefits. Would it not solve some problems if we were just to look at increasing the income threshold? Would it not resolve some of the issues I'm hearing? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you for that answer. And I look forward to that information.

One final one, Mr. Speaker, I know that the Minister spoke about the funding, the $1.7 million. Can he speak specifically what the department's doing to support the work of the community food banks in Inuvik, please?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank Premier Simpson for that information, certainly it's good to get that on public record.

Mr. Speaker, how is the department working with the federal government to maximize the Nutrition North support programs for my region?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in order for people to live financially independent from the government, there needs to be local economic opportunities. There needs to be business activity and a local economy in order for people to earn wages and prosper. When there's a lack of business activity, Mr. Speaker, like we see in the Beaufort Delta region, families have no choice but to turn to income support. And when families are limited to income support to pay their bills, providing healthy nutritious meals becomes even more of a challenge.

Mr. Speaker, the population of Inuvik is 3,383. The...

Mr. Chair, I move that this committee defer the further consideration of the main estimates for the Department of Health and Social Services at this time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'm not arguing that. I'm saying is that what's low income? You have two people that don't qualify for the other benefits that you just mentioned. They're making 80 grand a year. You have a couple making 80 grand a year each, or a couple making that living in Inuvik. Not a lot of money left over at the end of the month, believe it or not. If you look at the bills and you know yourself what you have to pay up there. And if you had a couple of kids in that household as well and, again, what I understand and I get it. And when I've talked to people in the department and I've talked to other...