Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are in follow up to my statement earlier today on poverty traps and directed to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Yesterday and today I think I made it clear that our social safety net has some pretty serious poverty traps in it, but I would like to give the Minister a chance to demonstrate differently. We track people on income support more than anyone else in the NWT. We know month by month what is in their bank account.
Will the Minister tell us how many people our system has helped rise out of poverty in the last year or any year?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I think I see another written question coming. The Member is asking for detailed information. I don’t have the actual numbers of how many people we track on the detailed information that’s required, verification and so forth, to confirm that there’s going to be a payment. But we must keep in mind that income support is a last resort as a subsidy program to the community members. We do what we can to help the most vulnerable in the communities. As I stated yesterday, as well, that part of the labour market, we have to improve and encourage those individuals to fill those potential job opportunities. We are doing what we can to provide the productive choices training on-the-job program. The funding is available, so we have to encourage those individuals. My department continues to do that and will continue to relay that message on to the communities.
I can assure the Minister that I do track that information and we have the poorest 20 percent of people in this jurisdiction in the country and it’s not improving. I appreciate that we do what we can, the Minister does what he can, but what I’m suggesting here is ways that we can do more with less.
As I mentioned, Nutrition North does food basket surveys on what it costs to feed a family of four in our communities. Their data shows that the amount provided by income support is only half of what is needed. Maintaining our focus on the most critical element underserved here – that’s children – how does the Minister expect children to succeed in school when their parents cannot afford to feed them?
Income support is not the only avenue that we provide funding to the most vulnerable that the Member is referring to. We work closely with the Department of Health and Social Services, the Wellness Program. There are all these different subsidy programs that are out there. Income support is just one area that we subsidize the most vulnerable. Yes, we need to prepare our community members and Northwest Territories residents, especially the young ones, for them to enter the education field and eventually graduate and to come back and be a part of the northern workforce. Those are the overall goals and objectives of this government, the wellness of our people, the most educated. This is what we do. Part of the Labour Market Development Agreement, we provide those subsidies. Income support is another venue, SFA and the child services as well. Those are just some of the areas that we continue to provide services.
To the Minister, we’ve heard all about this amazing and costly maze of support, ineffective supports, that we have out there. We’re trying to move on here.
There are additional supports available to people in poverty, such as the GST rebate and the child tax credit. Despite their intent to help, our system takes that money away from families. I very much doubt that the money we save from chasing after these meagre funds even covers the cost of the government workers chasing after them.
How can the Minister justify clawing back payments that are meant to alleviate poverty when people are already struggling just to buy food?
Again, it is a last resort venue that we have as the income support division. It’s not a money-making machine. We’re there to assist those most vulnerable individuals in the communities. Just as an example, I can use the Sahtu region as an example where there’s a very hot economy that’s happening there. There is all this different training that’s been developed and job creation. Based on that, people are getting off income support. That’s the whole objective of this government. We need to push that forward.
Canada’s job grant that’s coming down from the federal government, we’re fully on board with the changes that are coming down. That is a decision that we’ve made and we’re going forward as the territorial government working with the federal government. Along with the Department of Health and Social Services and my department and ITI, we’re going to move forward on this.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not totally sure the Minister has been hearing my description of poverty traps. This guy is stuck at home with children and when he tries to work a little bit, it gets clawed back and he’s even worse off. When the Minister or myself make an extra $1,000, we pay income tax. We are not living in poverty, so we contribute about $400 of that back to society, and I think we would agree, all of us, that that’s money well spent. But when someone on income support makes an extra $1,000, they only get to keep $150.
How can the Minister or any government official possibly justify an 85 percent effective tax rate on income for people who are trying to get out of poverty when the most well paid people in the NWT only pay 40 percent?
I, too, would like to encourage those individuals to enter the workforce, and all of us here, 19 of us, fully support that. We want individuals to be successful in the Northwest Territories, throughout Canada, internationally, so we have to provide them the tools. Part of the tools that we’re providing them is productive choices within our income support division, and part of the productive choices is putting them on on-the-job training and preparing them for resume writing. All these different tools that we are providing them are there for individuals such as what Mr. Bromley is referring to as part of the clientele. There is also a $1,200 exemption that individuals can qualify for within the income support division.
We do have a subsidy program for those most vulnerable. We will continue to support that. It is key that we have to support those individuals that are in the system to make them a success in their lives. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
