Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to follow up from my Member’s statement earlier today with questions for the Minister of ECE. I would like to know why we treat people differently, depending on how much money they make. Recognizing that the Minister is working hard on this issue, could the Minister explain what is the underlying philosophy as to why the system his department operates inherently treats people who are living in poverty with less respect than other people? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Within the income support division, we treat everybody equally and respectfully and there is a reporting mechanism that is in place. We have to work closely with the office of the Auditor General that did the overall, intensive and comprehensive review of our income support division. Based on the feedback that we received from the office of the Auditor General, there’s a guideline we have to follow. The regulations have been established. The reporting mechanism is a key front of the discussion that we have with clientele. They have to report, whether it be income classification, the documentation that needs to be submitted. Those are some of the questions that the client service officers ask to those individuals, but the individuals aren’t treated differently. We have to treat everybody equally, as much as we can, throughout the Northwest Territories. Mahsi.
Thanks to the Minister. I know that the Minister is working hard on this. Unfortunately, it’s an inherent thing that I think even enters the policy-maker’s view of things and ends up with these policies that create poverty traps.
The Minister recently provided information in a response to a written question on the cost of running our income security programs. Income support spent $3.5 million to distribute $16 million. In comparison, Student Financial Assistance costs $660,000 to distribute $16 million while the cost of living tax distributed $21.5 million and did not cost us anything. Why does the Income Support Program cost millions more to run when it distributes less money to fewer people? Mahsi.
Mahsi. When we talk about the income support division, it does consist of various programs and part of it is the seniors’ home heating subsidy, income assistance in general to support those individuals and providing assistance to residents 19 years of age and over for basic food necessities, shelter and clothing expenses and we have to attend to those most vulnerable individuals in the communities, the clientele. So, these are just some of the areas: NWT territorial workers supplement, NWT child tax, senior citizens supplementary benefits, SFA. All of these fall under income support. So, yes, the number the Member highlights, $3.5 million to distribute $16 million, obviously our target is to get people off income support. That’s why we’re focusing on a Labour Market Agreement with the federal government to allocate this towards the readiness for work and we’re doing what we can as a department to alleviate that, but this is what we have to date with the policies that are driven. So, we’ll continue to stress that with the constituencies and also with the federal government for job readiness. Mahsi.
The Minister and I have the same goals and what I’m saying is, after decades of failure, keeping people in poverty, recognizing this government’s commitment to get out of poverty, help people get out of poverty, let’s do some changes here and I’m suggesting some.
The Minister recently announced a clearly sensible policy that recipients of Student Financial Assistance will only have to report every three months instead of monthly. We are all aware that we have to fill out our annual tax returns pretty soon.
Why does the department continue to require that income support paperwork be completed month after month after month? Mahsi.
Again, I will have to reflect back on the office of the Auditor General. As you know, they are here this week as part of the review process for Health and Social Services, as we did last year. It’s a very comprehensive review that they’re going through and we must follow the guidelines and they strictly highlight the reporting mechanism, not only that but the monthly reporting mechanism, how we should be working with the clientele. So, all the documents are in place.
Those are just some of the guidelines we have to follow, the regulations that are before us and through the legislation that has been through this House is part of the process that we have to go through. Again, with the policies, policies can also go through changes. We made some changes in 2007, drastic changes, and every year we go through the review process of the policies. Those are just some of the options that we’ll consider. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister doesn’t know that we make those policies, we make those guidelines, we make those regulations, we have the power. When an elder becomes eligible for a pension, no one asks them if they have spent every penny and sold their vehicle before they are eligible. When a business owner goes bankrupt they are allowed to keep their registered retirement savings. So why does the income support system require a single parent who cannot work because they are looking after their children to use up all their assets before they are eligible for income support and thus create this poverty trap?
Again, we’re following the guidelines of what has been passed in this House. Yes, we changed those policies, we changed that legislation, the regulations in this House. At the same time, we have to follow the office of the Auditor General. Simply, there are strict guidelines for us to follow. Obviously, we don’t want to break those policies, those programs, those regulations that are in place. At this point there’s a reason for it. At the same time, the reporting mechanism is in place for various reasons. There are individuals who may be going through certain stages. We need to identify if there has been some deposits into their bank accounts, and there are times where there is no reason given why there is a substantial amount of funds in their account. Those are just simplistic reasons why we need to know, because income support is a basic necessity for those individuals that are struggling. Again, it is policy driven. We can make those recommended changes and we will definitely consider those as we move forward.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
