Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my colleague Ms. Bisaro’s questions to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment the other day regarding late payment of income support.
I’ll start by noting that I raised this issue with the Minister in 2010 and was told at the time that the problem was due to staff changes. This time it’s attributed to the possibility of holidays or staff vacancies. Obviously, these predictable and regular occurrences should never deprive people, destitute people of their only way to pay rent, buy food and clothe their families.
Can the Minister assure me that, no matter what, there will be enough staff at ECE all the time, every time, to ensure these payments are processed on time?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I agree with the Member that we need to have the staff up to speed on all the processing and issuing of the cheques on time. That is one of our priorities. This has been brought to my attention when Member Bisaro first asked those questions. I then followed up with my department. There have been some challenges, but at the same time, I have instructed my department that we need to make this a priority. If we have a shortage of staff, whether it be on leave, we need to have a dedicated individual in the system who can follow up on all requests.
I did commit to this House already that this is a matter that we’re following through with, and also, again, reiterating that there is client service training that is going to be happening at the end of this month and the beginning of next month to establish more of a positive step forward. That’s what we’re looking forward to with all the client service officers.
Thanks to the Minister for those comments. We certainly do need redundancy here in order to avoid this sort of situation. I just want to explore further the issue of backup for emergencies. The Minister’s 2010 answers to me promised a change in process and more staff training. Ms. Bisaro was told last week that there will be client service officer training, and the Minister has confirmed that. Because this is a financial payment function, and because the need for prompt payments is absolutely critical, will the Minister ensure that not only client service officers but an emergency backup in the finance area will be able to make these payments no matter what?
We do try to avoid, as much as we can, on the delay of payments to those clients. We understand that the power bill, the utility bills and other food sources, that is our priority, to issue those cheques on time. But there are times when we are challenged with providing documentation and so forth.
Again, as I indicated, we are going to have a dedicated individual that deals with those matters. The requests that come in, I specifically instructed, after the question was raised in the House, that this is an urgent matter. We need to deal with it especially now that winter is here. It is a priority for my Department of ECE. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, thanks again to the Minister for that response. My understanding is that the client service officers put in the order for the cheque and then the financial people issue the cheque. That is what I was referring to. I assume that the Minister has that well in hand and will ensure both steps are taken in a timely fashion.
When these payments are late they cause ripple effects. People incur late fees for things such as phone and electricity. These are people for whom a five or 10 dollar additional charge is equivalent to a day’s groceries for a family. Unfortunately, current income support policy does not provide for the reimbursement of these penalties resulting from ECE’s tardiness.
I am assuming this isn’t going to happen again, but if it does, our records show that clearly when ECE payments have been made late, in cases where clients have been paid late, will ECE reimburse the cost of penalties that have resulted from payments received belatedly? Thank you.
That is correct; we are going to avoid late payments. Those late payments in the past, again, it all depends on the case-by-case basis. It could be missing documents. It is a shared responsibility between clients and our department, the client service officers. The information I gather and also the training that is going to be happening at the end of the month is specifically to deal with the backlog, the satisfaction survey that has been conducted in the past, how client service officers deal with those clientele in a professional and positive manner. The process itself from issuing of the cheque through the Finance department, we need to expedite the process, especially during the winter months. That is the commitment I made within my department, gave the instruction to my department. We will follow through with that. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
