Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, since my constituency office reopened after the new year, we have had an extraordinary number of constituents contacting us regarding concerns with income support. I think all of us can attest to the fact that December is a higher-than-usual month for expenditures. First of all, it’s the middle of winter. Utilities and many other costs are at the highest they will be throughout the year. It’s also Christmastime and it’s difficult for anyone not to overextend themselves at this time of giving and sharing with family and friends. It’s no different for families on income support.

I have had numerous constituents report that their income support has been cut off for various reasons in January. Some of them received IBA payments in December which were clawed back in January. Some of them received gifts of cash from family to buy gifts for their children. Apparently, these are both treated as income under current policies and guidelines. I’ve heard concerns from landlords who haven’t been paid their January rent because income support clients who are tenants are struggling to work out January payments due to a variety of reasons like the ones I’ve mentioned. Some clients have had family and friends visiting over the holidays who are then deemed to be living with them. Those visitors had income, thus affecting the eligibility criteria of the client.

If the clients aren’t happy with decisions made by income support workers, they can appeal, but the response to an appeal can take up to 30 days. That is a very long time to be denied access to basic necessities. I think it’s time to revisit the approach that we take to income support. We’ve heard a lot about productive choices, but the array of circumstances that can affect a person’s life and ability to act on productive choices also needs to be taken into consideration. It can’t be a purely numbers approach. People are complex and there are many different challenges which may need to be addressed to assist them in becoming able to independently support themselves and their families.

We need to take a holistic and long-range approach to the needs of income support clients instead of assessing everyone and everything on a month-to-month basis. Without supplementary supports in place, dealing with the system can create stress actually working against the path to self-reliance. We need counsellors who can work with clients on issues such as access to job training, addictions counselling, money management and life skills. I’m not advocating for anyone abusing the social security safety net we have in place, but if we seriously want to see progress in people’s lives, we need to deal not only with their basic need of food, shelter and clothing, but other needs that contribute to their dependency on the system.

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to request unanimous consent to conclude my statement. Thank you.

Speaker: MR. SPEAKER

The Member is seeking unanimous consent to conclude her statement. Are there any nays? There are no nays. You have unanimous consent to conclude your statement, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Jane Groenewegen

Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. We need well-trained and compassionate people acting on commonsense and compassionate policies and guidelines dealing with people in need in our communities. Everyone deserves to be treated with dignity. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause