Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like today to discuss difficulties encountered by Yellowknife residents who happen to be clients of the Income Assistance Program.
Every MLA in here has heard from constituents regarding how hard it is to get decent customer service from Education, Culture and Employment’s Income Support Program. But in Yellowknife, because the office is located in the Greenstone Building, a very secure federal building, it presents special difficulties for clients who have to visit the office to meet with their client service officer, or CSO. The CSOs work in an area inaccessible to the public behind a locked door. So in order to meet with them, even if you have a scheduled appointment, you must call them from the reception area. If they are available, the CSO comes out and you are buzzed in to attend your meeting. Although a receptionist sits in front of that locked door, he or she does not call. The client must call.
Mr. Speaker, receptionists are front-line workers. They are the first people a client encounters at the income support office. They should be welcoming and helpful. They should be the compassionate, knowledgeable and concerned person who soothes and guides the client through the often mystifying and scary process of income support.
Yet, when you walk into the income assistance office in Yellowknife and ask a question, more often than not you get an abrupt response or are left to use the phone without assistance and there may or may not be someone at the other end of the phone line to help deal with your problems. Seldom will the receptionist consider it his or her job to help the client get in touch with the CSO.
There are a few more difficulties experienced by my constituents. Messages left on the CSO’s voice mail asking for a call back are not actioned. E-mails sent with questions about forms, next steps, getting an appointment and so on are not replied to. Clients without a phone at home must make the trip to the office several times to meet with the CSO, often without any guarantee of success.
Why no response? Well, often it’s because the CSO has been away on training, on holidays, sick leave, any one of a number of reasons and no one is covering for that staffer who happens to be away. The client, usually in need of immediate help, is left to their own devices for up to a week trying to survive some crisis on their own.
Income support should be an office, a program that provides service to their customers, that provides assistance to residents who are in need. How can the client get assistance when no CSO will meet with them? If income support really believes that they deal with clients, then the attitude should be that of serving the customer and satisfying the customer. There needs to be a major shift in the approach used...
Ms. Bisaro, your time for your Member’s statement has expired.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to my colleagues. There needs to be a major shift in the approach used by CSOs with YK income support clients, a focus on service to the client, not the CSO. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
