Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I guess basically it’s in terms of planning and getting ready for a region when we go through an economic downturn. I just want to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment if he has seen an increased cost in our Income Assistance Program and, if so, does he know the figure of how many dollars we’re putting in to the income assistance in the community of Inuvik. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. With the Income Assistance Program, we made some changes in 2007 to reflect the cost of living in the North and also the remoteness of the communities and, of course, the high costs. So we made those changes in 2007 and we have continued to monitor that since then until today. I have instructed my department to re-evaluate the program itself and continue monitoring it. If there are changes in the cost factor in, let’s say, the Beaufort-Delta, we need to take those into consideration. If we’re going to make changes, we have to come back to this House to make those changes. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Just along those lines, I’d like to ask the Minister if there has been an increase in the amount of applications and an increase in the amount of residents that are now collecting income assistance in the community of Inuvik, has there been an increase in the amount of dollars that are allocated to this particular program. I’m trying to get to a point here, because with the lack of jobs and the downturn in Inuvik right now, we’re going to see more families, we’re going to see more people, more residents who are becoming dependent on government and income assistance. I’ve seen it through my office. I’d like to ask the Minister if he has seen an increase in the applications and the number of people who are on income assistance and an increase in dollars. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, by all means I would like to see more people and a population increase in the Northwest Territories. Based on that, it does fluctuate. People leave, people come, depending on the opportunities. When there’s an increase in the caseloads for, let’s say, the Beaufort-Delta, then have a monetary mechanism. If it’s higher than what is expected or budgeted, then we have to come back to this House. We’ve done that in the past, so we’ll continue to work in that regard. We do have a budget for the Income Security Framework overall. Again in 2007 there was an increase. If there needs to be another increase, that’s an area that we need to look at.
I have instructed my department to look seriously where we’re at with income security overall. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, through my office I’ve had a lot of constituents come and express their concern about not being able to work or find contracts, and have to refer to looking at other social programs that can help them assist. I’m asking the Minister if he’s seen an increase in the amount for my community. If he has seen an increase, he kind of alluded to it in his last statement, but is there an action plan to address the higher costs of income dollars going into Inuvik specifically, so that more residents are actually having to, not by choice but having to, because of the economic downturn. Is there an action plan to address the high rates of applications? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, there is additional or higher caseloads, then those areas are continually monitored through my department. It’s not only Inuvik or the Beaufort-Delta, it’s all 33 communities that we service.
As I stated, there is a fluctuation in the population in the communities and the caseload does go down as well. Of course, we’d like to see the caseload go down. There are opportunities and activities happening in other regions, whether it be the Sahtu region, and in the Beaufort-Delta there’s the road that’s been discussed. So there are going to be opportunities there.
At the same time, we are working closely with the regional representatives. The number has increased a bit in the various areas, but I can share that information with the Members for their information. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Mahsi, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess my final question – the Minister did mention that it’s high throughout the Northwest Territories – what is the Minister doing to address it? I know they have the pro choices program, but what else is he doing to address this? He’s also the Minister of training and education. What is he doing to address and reduce the number of applications to get our people back into the workforce and off income assistance? What is the Minister doing to address these high rates of incidences of applications and dollars that have been going into this program? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I’d like to thank the Member for that particular question. Those are the key areas that we are focusing on. We want to have a trained workforce, whether it be from the Beaufort-Delta, Sahtu or other regions. If there are opportunities and activities that are happening, we need to be ready for them.
We are working closely with industries. We have the productive choices part of the program through income security. I’ve told my department to seriously look at the productive choices, how we can improve and have the programming we have now, so it’s sort of like incentives where individuals can explore training and explore other opportunities out there. So those are areas that I will be talking to Members, as well, and standing committee. I want to bring that forward to the standing committee if there are going to be changes and options that we need to work with. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
