Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to begin by just getting a bookkeeping item out of the way. In the opening address by the Commissioner and again yesterday, the Premier referred to the NWT as a hydroelectric superpower rivaling Quebec or James Bay, as the case may be. That’s just not so. Quebec’s current installed production is 35 megawatts. Quebec’s potential production exceeds 120 megawatts. The NWT Hydro Strategy estimates the potential NWT hydro at 11.5 megawatts. So Quebec is more than 10 times the NWT’s and its current production is more than three times of our total potential.
Why is this? Well, in a tour of the Manitoba Hydro that I did during the 16th Assembly with the Premier, we learned the difference between Manitoba and Quebec and the Northwest Territories. The first factor there was gradient. We simply do not have the flow rate needed to generate the power that Quebec and James Bay enjoy. We simply don’t have the volume. Our precipitation in the Mackenzie Basin is not equal to the precipitation that they have, so we simply do not have the volume to generate that power. The loss of our glaciers as a result of climate change, obviously acting as a feedstock no longer, has not helped the situation.
But why am I making this point? What’s the significance? Well, when we repeatedly give false information and impressions, we are encouraging unrealistic expectations. We have lots of hydro power for our needs in the Northwest Territories, but we are not an energy superpower when it comes to hydro. I’m just saying, when our leaders are talking, let’s get it right.
I’d like to turn to the main focus of my comments today, and I’d like to begin by acknowledging again Ms. Miranda Currie, who’s in the gallery today. Thanks for coming out, Miranda. I’d like to read a poem that Ms. Currie has written to describe her experiences in seeking disability income support, and it’s obviously germane because of the Auditor General’s focus, and I know the Minister is focusing on this situation right now as well. Once again, thanks to Miranda for graciously sharing her personal story through the art of this poetry.
But first, a little bit of background. Ms. Currie suffered a very serious head injury in an accident in November 2011. She later suffered multiple injuries again, head injuries, as a result of the ill effects of her original injury. To this day she is continuing to strive to regain her health. She’s a very spunky person and I know she will achieve that. However, she has been unable to carry on her daily life in a normal way. She has been in and out of hospitals and has received extensive neurological treatment since then, and she does suffer impairment of her speech and many motor skills. Miranda was self-employed before the accident, and she must now rely on public income support to meet her basic subsistence needs. She lives very modestly. Her ordeal with income security has hardly been a positive contribution in her effort to regain her health, and that’s the topic today.
Just a few of the difficulties that she has experienced in trying to access income assistance include:
A case worker refusal to provide accommodation assistance based on the subjective judgment that she lives in substandard housing.
Receipts to document her rental, electrical and fuel costs were obtained with great physical difficulties and expense and visiting offices to obtain stamped and certified copies.
Income assistance staff say they have lost the receipts she has supplied to their offices. This has happened four times. Imagine if you were saddled with this situation.
Despite severe mobility problems and risk of re-injury, she has repeatedly been told she must come to the income assistance office for interviews, which could easily be conducted over the phone.
She has been refused reimbursement of costs for loans received from friends in the interim to pay her fuel, power and living costs, and given the explanation that those are considered gifts. Nice of them to make that decision on behalf of her friends.
Treatment that lacks compassion and sensitivity to the realities of her situation, again, not a single instance, such as a caseworker hanging up on her after saying I’ll see you tomorrow when Ms. Currie has said she is physically unable to attend appointments due to the effects of her injuries.
And, finally, a late payment of support have at times left her huddled in her bed to stay warm, unable to pay oil bills and living in a home well below zero. We know what this winter has been like.
That’s enough background. Her words really do speak for themselves, and once again I want to express my appreciation to Miranda Currie for her willingness to share this very personal story.
The date on it is the 20th of February 2013. The poem is entitled…
I came to the office to apply for… Income. Support. I tried to make sense of the 22 pages of forms. Name, date, age? Fill it out, next page…
Bank accounts, investments, medical assessments. I wondered how I could be in this situation,
and tried to be thankful?
Embarrassed, I brought my papers to the “help” desk.
I felt like I was handing in a poorly written test.
You spoke to me through a hole in the plexi-glass,
a pane that assumed you needed protection from citizens of a lower class.
I felt like an animal, wounded, and asking for help,
“I used to be so independent, when I had my health.”
Please hear my wavering voice, it is so hard for me to ask
for help to accomplish even the simplest task.
I just need a little more patience, because everything moves just a little more slow
And sometimes I’d like to tell you how you could help, but I don’t even know.
I am trying my best… really…
I am vulnerable and you have the power to help me.
Still no supportive income, and I wonder why…
I am sitting at your desk, with a tear in my eye
You look up from that folder of papers, you notice and say, “Don’t you start to cry.
Crying won’t get you anywhere with me.”
This voice reminds me of Grade 3
and scratchy chalkboards and teachers angry with me
But I am 32, probably about the same age as you,
give or take a year. or a few…
I am overwhelmed by the situation,
I am tearing up in utter frustration
I came asking you to help with this crappy hand I’ve been dealt…
And you berate me…
And I say… I… I… I’m sorry.
The way I have been taught to do when speaking with someone in authority
Because if they say it, it must be valid…right?
NO…NOT VALID! NOT RIGHT!
I don’t deserve to be treated like this, but this doesn’t occur to me
until two o’clock that night
because I am so angry
I can’t sleep!
You had the power to help me.
I get a phone call.
A case worker says, “You are missing paperwork. You didn’t submit it all.”
This blows my mind,
because this is the FOURTH time,
that my monthly paperwork has been “lost”
In that time, I have learned, to photocopy… everything.
Bank statements, power and fuel bills, receipts for rent,
I’ve kept track of every dollar I’ve spent.
So I go to my folder, and take the September pages out,
I pay for a taxi, so I can get this sorted out
I don’t want the payment to arrive in my bank account late
They make it seem like my fault, that’s the part I really hate.
“Hi, is … available?” I calmly say
“No, sorry she is not available today.”
“Well… I am feeling a little frustrated that my paperwork has been lost,
my social worker and I brought it in last week.”
“Oh yes, I remember stamping it, and putting it in her box.”
From the office space behind, ... Walks in…
Through that plexi-glass hole I say,
“I am sorry we have to meet this way,
I’m feeling really frustrated at having to resubmit my papers for this month
and was hoping to speak to you about heating fuel for my house.”
She looks at me, like she couldn’t give a …
and says, “I don’t have time for you,
you’ll need to book an appointment later this week.”
She turns around, walks away,
I have been dismissed.
I am overwhelmed by the situation,
I am tearing up in utter frustration
I came asking you to help with this crappy hand I’ve been dealt…
And you dismiss me…
The receptionist looks down, and I look around,
in disbelief.
Did that seriously just happen?
“I am doing my part,” I cry.
Then I slam my hand on the “help” desk
and yell, “There is NO DIGNITY IN THIS!”
Barely able to open the door,
I amble out of there with my cane beside me
I am exercising my personal responsibility. I’m trying my best… really…
But I am vulnerable and you have the power to help me.
I am lying in my bed, migraine in my head,
under the weight of multiple blankets
trying to stay warm.
It is minus 17 degrees Celsius in the house.
It has been 16 days since I first called income support to remind them I need fuel.
It has been 15 days since I used my rent money to pay for fuel.
It has been 3 days since that fuel run out.
It has been 2 days of sub-zero temperatures in the house.
No heat, no fuel, no rent, it’s cruel.
I have left numerous messages explaining the situation,
My social worker has experienced the same frustrations
No one answers or returns my calls
It is like I don’t exist at all.
My eyes are tear-frosted
I am totally exhausted
From fighting for basic needs.
You have the power to help me.
But maybe you are tired too,
exhausted from dealing with people who never say thank you
who shove their entitlement under that glass
when you really want to tell them to shove it...
Maybe you are tired of people who take too much, and give too little
even though you entered this profession to help people.
I know it must be difficult not to get jaded,
your passion, dimmed by the system, and faded
But YOU CAN effect the change that the world needs to see
YOU DO have the power to be the one person who treats a vulnerable person kindly.
I am vulnerable and you have the power to help me.
Thank you very much, Miranda, again, for sharing this.
---Applause
Mr. Speaker, I’m going to leave it at that, but I don’t want to say any more because I think that the power of Ms. Currie’s words clearly resonate with a lot of us. I know the Minister is going to get to work and straighten this situation out with our support. Mahsi.
