Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I listened with interest as my colleagues raised the issue of the Child Tax Benefit and how that is clawed back. Mr. Miltenberger will remember in a previous government we had a Minister of ECE that we dubbed “The Claw.” I’m sure that Mr. Lafferty would not like to receive such notoriety.
I had an incident recently in my constituency which causes me to wonder about how far we go to claw back things. This constituent had an unfortunate tragedy in her family. Community members came together and raised money and made donations to help this family cope with this. Now, I understand that when she went to income support the next month, that they treated those donations as income and actually clawed that back from her in the form of not giving her the income support.
I’d like to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, is it the policy of our government to treat donations to a family that’s had a tragedy, which is a common, common practice in the North here, is it our practice to treat that as income.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I have to look into that specific case, but any income that comes into the household, it is considered as household income, and due to that it’s based on the policies that we have in place. Mind you, policies can always be amended, as well, and there is an amendment that’s coming very soon on one of the subsidies that we provide. We’re going to make some changes.
With respect to this individual case, I have to follow up with the Member on the specific topic on the donation itself, because it is an issue that we may have to be faced with and possibly make some changes, but I need to look further on this case.
I do appreciate the Minister being willing to sit down and look at this individual case, but I want to know what is the general policy of this government. Because as we know, if people have a tragedy, if they have a death in the family, if they have to travel for some reason, a sickness, that it is common for people to rally around them and donate to that family to see them through that difficult time. Surely the Minister knows, in a yes or no answer, is it the policy of our government to claw back such donations? I have never heard of it ever before until this particular incident. Is it the current policy, regardless of the flexibility, is it the policy of this government to claw that money back?
Mr. Speaker, I need to confirm with my department on the specific policy on donations. If it’s part of the clawback, I will need to get back to the Members on that specifically. I do not want to give an answer now. It may be a question down the road. I want to verify that with my department first, prior to giving the answer.
Mr. Speaker, over the years we’ve had much debate in this House about whether impact and benefit agreement payments, beneficiary shareholders payments, bingo earnings, you know, we’ve had discussion about all kinds of, you know, the Child Tax Benefit, whether or not these things should be treated as income. Is there any review or does a policy review occasionally take place to determine or is it just on an as-required basis? Is there any forum, I guess, in which we can have input that could go towards changing that policy?
Yes, again, there is a policy that’s coming forward, and I want to give the Members a heads-up that we want to make some changes and make some amendments to what the Member’s alluded to, whether it be IBA or land claims or other areas. That we are, on a regular basis, listening to the Members, if they want to see some changes. We are taking them seriously, and this is one of the areas that is coming forward based on the Member’s discussions, and I will be sitting down with the Members to give them an update on the amendments and changes before the end of the year.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
