Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I spoke about the Child Tax Benefit being included as income in the Housing Corporation’s changes to their programming. Seemingly little changes that happen often have big impacts in our smaller communities and in this case that is such the case.
We had a commitment, as a full Caucus of this territorial government, to lower the cost of living, yet we make a change to impact parents and single parents like this.
I’d like to ask Mr. Premier, can the Cabinet review this situation where we are, in essence, clawing back the federal Child Tax Benefit. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The new public housing rent scales came into effect July 1, 2012, and largely at the call of all the Members of this House to have a system that was much fairer and treated all of our residents in housing more equitably. At that time the decision was made that to be fair, all sources of income would be included in the calculation, and to change from that would mean we’re going back to the old rental scale approach, back to a shotgun approach where all different types of support were exempted. So that’s why the new public housing rental scales were drawn up so that it would include these forms of income. Thank you.
Thank you very much. I recall the debate that we had two Assemblies ago and there was a reason we exempted these federal tax benefits to single parents and people of low income. So I’d like to ask, Mr. Premier, how is this consistent with our goal of lowering the cost of living for our residents by including Child Tax Benefit and clawing back the much needed little income that these people need.
On average a mother with one child receives about $300 a month in Child Tax Benefit. Two-thirds of that is exempt. One-third of that is included in income assistance. So that works out to about $100 a month and this is consistent with all across Canada. Thank you.
We’re all aware that, of course, we’re living in the North and the cost of living is much higher up here and that’s the reason we had exempted these federal transfers. We are clawing it back, and I’d like to ask Mr. Premier, can he commit for his government to review this situation and correct that and exempt Child Tax Benefit as income. Thank you.
The new rent scales that were introduced July 1, 2012, charge very low rent for low income households. If you make less than $1,677 a month, you pay $70 to $80 a month in rent. So I think that exempting Child Tax Benefit would have minimal impact on the rent that’s charged. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Premier doesn’t seem to at least review it and I’d like to ask the Premier one more time, will he and his Cabinet review this and to the point where how much benefit is this government actually getting by doing that, by taxing our low and middle income people and single parents. Thank you.
I don’t know if the Member is asking us to go back to the old rental scale that was in place, but as a government we’re always prepared to review our policies to make sure that they’re working the way they’re supposed to. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
