Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. It has to do with the Income Support Program and the client with a disability, people who apply under this program. My understanding is there was an issue that was dealt with in Deline and as a result of that, there are other issues that have come forward in terms of the disability aspect of this program. Right now, Mr. Speaker, I understand there’s a family that has some issues that deal with a disability and this family with small children is living in a warehouse behind some sister’s place and is living elsewhere in Deline.
In terms of this issue, I want to ask the Minister, is his department willing to work with the Department of Health, work with the Housing Corporation in terms of how to deal with this family with small children that are living in a warehouse in Deline?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Yes, definitely, I’m willing to work with the NWT Housing Minister and also the Minister responsible for Persons with Disabilities, if that needs to be the case. With our programming, we do provide subsidies to people with disabilities above and beyond the regular programming that we offer to NWT residents. So we continue to make improvements in those areas and continue to provide subsidies. Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, certainly the government does provide support to persons with disabilities; however, somewhere there appears to be a disconnect between the local housing authority and the Income Support Program, because the local housing authority was going to evict this person with disabilities. It wasn’t until the department stepped in and made the arrangements so that person can stay in their unit. However, there is a family right now with children who are not in a public unit, because of some of the housing policies, that this family here is living in a warehouse, have no running water, especially with H1N1 out there, that this is a serious problem.
I ask the Minister again, in terms of strengthening the communication between Housing and the department of income support in terms of these types of situations that we not see any more in our communities. Can the Minister commit to me in terms of providing to me and the people of Deline a strong communication process in terms of not seeing this happen again?
Mr. Speaker, certainly we do what we can to prevent these things from happening. Surely, if we need to improve in our communication dialogue, we’re more than willing to do that between the departments. So those are the areas of improvement that we can certainly discuss at the departmental level. Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, can the Minister commit to me also to work with the Department of Health and Social Services with people with disabilities in terms of them clearly understanding their responsibility when they have a housing unit, that there is support there for people with disabilities in terms of having their living conditions in the communities?
Mr. Speaker, most definitely. The Minister of Health and Social Services is also the Minister of Persons with Disabilities and she’s also taking all kinds of notes sitting beside me, so, definitely, we’ll continue to work in those areas. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Your final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I would ask the Minister if he would work closely with the Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation in terms of this issue, in terms of the issue with this family here with small children that are living in the warehouses or somewhere else in Deline, that this family here gets the shelter that they need to have.
First of all we need to find out what’s really happening, why they are in the situation they are and how we can assist them. We do have programs that can certainly assist them and, yes, I’m more than willing to work with both departments, the NWT Housing Corporation and the Minister of Health and also Persons with Disabilities. If we need to improve in those areas, I am more than willing to look at it. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
