Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up on my Member’s statement, most particularly with the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment in that he had indicated that he was going to review the Income Support Program and the seniors home heating subsidy that is in that program. I’d like to ask what the timing is of that review.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I did commit in this House a couple of weeks ago that we are looking at a seniors home fuel subsidy and if we need to make some changes, we need to work with the committee members. Those are areas that I did already commit. We will keep the Members posted as we move forward.
When they’re reviewing the Income Support Program it really covers lots of different areas. I’m just looking to ask the Minister that when it comes to income support, that the seniors home heating subsidy gets reviewed by itself and all the different concerns that I’ve raised and other MLAs have raised, particularly when people are living with the seniors, and why is it impacting their eligibility, et cetera. If that’s something that’s separate and distinct that he can look at when he’s reviewing it.
The income security framework, there was a review back in 2007. Out of the review we made some changes to reflect on the high cost of living in small, isolated communities and to provide more subsidies to those communities. On the side of that, we’ve looked at a seniors home fuel subsidy, as well, and over time we made some changes on the threshold as well. This is a policy area. We’re looking at this request that was made a couple of weeks ago on various aspects of where seniors have their grandchildren or children living with them but they’re at 90-plus years of age. That was a scenario they were throwing at us. Those are cases we need to look at.
Representing small and remote communities I think I'm paying particular attention to how our seniors are treated there, as well, and given the program. I guess one of the other things, too, is that when workers are going to small and remote communities, the documentation is not there and there’s always a need to accept a statutory declaration because some documents are lost. What is the department’s position on using statutory declarations?
That was also brought up. That will be part of the discussion we’ll be having with my department. We need to look at the overall structure of how we deliver subsidy programming. We talk about individuals living with their parents or grandparents and some individuals can be making more money than we are, standing up here. But we don’t charge them to be part of the household. So we ask for household income so they can be part of the process. So there’s no penalization on the elders. Those are the options we need to work with.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I agree with the Minister that there are people living and taking advantage of the seniors and there are people who are there to take care of them. There’s a distinction that we’re going to have to make and we’re going to have to consider that seriously, I certainly agree. I’d like the Minister to use that analogy when it comes to reviewing the income support and the seniors home heating subsidy.
Definitely that will be part of our discussion. We need to think of all the analysis that is out there. Having those individuals that are living with their parents that are working versus the ones that are looking after their grandparents or parents, those are the discussions that we need to have.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
