Debates of October 20, 2006 (day 12)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my Member’s statement is on the high cost of living for seniors. Throughout the Northwest Territories, there are seniors on a fixed incomes living in their homes struggling to make ends meet. For those elders living in smaller communities who do not live in free social housing, their standards of living is decreasing with each passing day and year. Mr. Speaker, I know of elders in the Sahtu that are forced to save $250 from each of their pension cheques just so that they can afford the cost of heating fuel and electricity in the cold winter months. There is no money left, Mr. Speaker, for any comfort or to spend on their grandchildren. So much for freedom 55.

Many of the elders I am speaking of have served the people of the Northwest Territories as teachers, community health representatives, tradespersons or even just keeping the local schools clean and safe for the children. Now it’s time for us to serve them.

Those government programs like seniors’ home heating fuel subsidy and the repair programs offered by the Housing Corporation are sometimes tested and there are very little funds to serve them and are not always available to our elders. I would just like to ask the Members of this Assembly to consider the day when you are retired from public life in the wage economy and are forced to live off your savings and fixed pension. Do you want to be scrimping and saving throughout the years just so that you can make it through the next winter with a roof over your head and heat in your home? Probably not.

Mr. Speaker, this government has acknowledged the development of a Home Care Program, the Seniors’ Fuel Subsidy Program and the Seniors’ Housing Program, the value and the economy of helping seniors be independent and remain in their own home for as long as they are able to, as a matter of respect. Putting money into programs to support independent living for seniors is cheaper for the government in the long run. We need to do more for the elders to live in their homes and be dignity free from the stress and worry about whether they can afford electricity and heat. I will have follow-up questions at the appropriate time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause