Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I was trying to provide some explanation in some manner to describe what some could perceive or see as quite real of what they are working for is and put a number on it. I used that as an illustration of $30,000. I am well aware of families who are trying to get by on that type of money, but when you own a house and you find it cheaper to get a mortgage than to live in rental accommodations that income support seems to fall silent.
My questions will be targeted towards the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment to tackle the Income Support Policy that needs to be amended. My question for the Minister would be as such: Would the Minister be willing to amend the Income Support Policy if it stops people from getting help who own houses who have mortgages? Because a few hundred dollars a month just may make the difference between being able to make a go of it, being independent or falling into the system. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Over time we amended our policy on the income support security system to reflect the costs of being in the Northwest Territories. There is a mortgage payment. It is covered up to three times in the lifetime of the clients. We do assess to some degree on the mortgage as well. Not only that but the client should not be building assets while accessing income support as well. There are subsidies in place. We have amended those subsidies in 2007 to reflect the cost for the Northwest Territories. We will continue to make those changes as necessary.
I appreciate the extra length to start to describe part of the problem, because the Minister got right to the point where I need to be, which is owning an asset is detrimental to being independent when you are struggling to get by. In other words, if you have a house and you have a mortgage and you can’t go to income support for help… As the Minister said, three times in your lifetime. There are a lot of people who struggle every single winter to pay for that power bill, that heating bill and certainly the high cost of food. That is the policy I am asking the Minister. Would he be willing to revisit this policy to see if we can make it work in such a way to help the working poor survive every winter, every day? Thank you.
The Income Support Policy states that it is a top-up for those low wage earners in the Northwest Territories to assist them in whether it be the heating bill or light bills, necessary expenses that are before us.
Again, this particular Income Security Policy has been amended in the past. We are certainly looking at those changes as necessary to meet the needs of the Northwest Territories. We have those clientele that have accessed our income security within our system so they have qualified through the Mortgage Subsidy Program up to three times in their lifetime. We do assist as best as we could, where it is badly needed and especially during winter seasons. We deal with other subsidies, as well, Seniors Fuel Subsidy Program and so forth. We will continue to assist in those categories. Mahsi.
Respectfully, of course, we are speaking more beyond the one time in your lifetime three months of mortgage payments. We are speaking about annual problems, yearly problems that come up every year, the high cost of oil, the high cost of electricity. I asked the Minister for advice on this particular problem. How does he see us getting to a point where we can amend the policy to help those who are working poor who just need a couple hundred dollars through the winter months to get by, because if they own a house they’re told by income support sell your house, sell your assets, come back on the system and we’ll take care of you. What type of independence are we supporting? Thank you.
As I stated, we try to assess those individuals who are struggling with their payments as best as we can as income support clientele. As you know, income support covers the Northwest Territories with the 33 communities that we service and we cannot cover all mortgage payments, but we do cover to some degree some payments so they can get by through a couple of months or during the winter transition period. So we do assist those clientele as best we can according to our Income Security Policy. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
I think we’re still at a crossroads here. I’m not just talking about the mortgage payment; I’m talking about the fact that many people have a struggle every month, all through winter. I can speak to even a specific case, if I may, is I know one particular family uses their credit card every month throughout the winter to survive, to pay for the oil, to pay for the food, to help pay for the electricity, and they hope for a good summer to be able to get by to balance them out. This is a terrible way and any financial advisor would tell you that’s a terrible way to be doing business.
So I’m asking income support, can they find a way to amend the policy so we can help families and protect families like this and help ensure that their independence exists. Thank you.
That is what we’re doing. We’re topping up the wage that they’ve earned, and if they can’t get by on certain months, we do assist them. They have to fit the criteria, as well, where how much they make per household and how many children they have and so forth, and the cause of the factors as well. So we are subsidizing those individuals that are a pressing need for the Northwest Territories.
We realize there is a high cost of living in the Northwest Territories, so it’s all based on that as well. So income support we always say is just a last resort, because we want to have independence in those individuals. So we try to assist them to make productive choices and so forth. So we’ll continue to strive for that. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
