Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today in my Member's statement, I was talking about income security. During my tours and talking to people, they are trying to understand it better, and I am not maybe doing the best job, so I guess what I am asking the Minister of ECE is: what factors are taken into calculating income support? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are a few factors that are taken into consideration when we are calculating income assistance. As you know, income assistance provides financial support to anybody who is over the age of 19. Some of these factors include such things as where the person lives, the size of the family, as well as the income that is in the household. The IA program also has fixed food rates for each community. Therefore, the amount of assistance that a recipient receives for food depends on where they reside. In August 2016 the department introduced a new IA benefit called the community cost adjustment, which provides additional assistance to help offset the high costs of living in smaller communities. I encourage any residents in the NWT that live in small communities, if they have concerns, that they go and speak to their client service officers. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I thank the Minister for giving us that information. That is very helpful, and I will be able to utilize that in my office and when I go on tour. One question that does happen to me, in my riding, is: why does not the department factor in freight into these calculations, especially in my riding?
The income assistance program does not specifically subsidize freight. When we do the calculations, all the factors that I have mentioned before are what we use. Moving forward, however, the Nutrition North Canada Program offered by the Government of Canada provides vendors with a subsidy for freight costs.
Mahsi cho to the Minister for his answer. I am in a unique situation, and I think I am unique here in the 19 ridings, as I have two communities that do not have stores. They have to rely on going to another community. Does the department take into consideration this factor when they come up with the subsidy?
When we look at the Income Assistance Program, the benefit levels are determined on a few factors in partnership with the NWT Bureau of Statistics, using information from the Northern Market Basket Measure, the NWT Community Price Survey, and the living cost differential. These are measures of costs of living in the Northwest Territories. We also use the Consumer Price Index, the Food Price Index, and the lowincome measure scale, which are nationally recognized models for determining income assistance rates. Those are what we are using for each of the communities in the NWT.
Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for his answer. It is still a little confusing here, though. We don't have a store in two of my communities, so the food basket is in, I would assume, Hay River or Fort Simpson, which, depending on the community and depending on the season, is either an hourandahalf ride to Fort Simpson or a fourandahalfhour ride to Hay River, which adds on to the costs of my residents. Will the Minister make a commitment to get his department to look into this unique situation for these two communities and come up with a subsidy that would help them move forward? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We can take a look into the unique situation. Obviously, it is right across the Northwest Territories. We do have a lot of communities that don't have access by roads. However, all the factors, all the indicators that we do when we measure the benefits I believe take all that into consideration when we are looking at clients who are on income assistance. We can take a look at that unique situation. However, I think everything that I have said today takes every community, every individual and unique situation every community has and it is calculated to the best interests of the clients in that community.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Question 597-18(2):
Merci, Monsieur le President. [Translation] I have some questions for the Minister of Lands [Translation ends]. Again, the mandate commitment is complete land use plans for all areas, including regions without land and resource agreements in collaboration with Aboriginal governments. So I would like to ask the Minister, of the two regions without land and resource agreements, the Akaitcho and the Deh Cho, what is the status of those two land use plans? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Lands.
Mr. Speaker, I can advise that, in the Deh Cho, a draft Deh Cho land use plan has been developed through the Deh Cho process. There are some remaining issues to be resolved, and the plan would then need to be approved by the parties involved, the Government of the Northwest Territories, Canada, and the Deh Cho. In all other areas, we are assisting Aboriginal governments in building capacity, and hopefully that will lead to resolution of these issues. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
On the Deh Cho process, my understanding is that the interim draft land use plan has been approved since 2005, so what has kept our government from signing off on that land use plan for over a decade?
There have certainly been delays. There are serious outstanding issues that the parties need to negotiate, implementation, for one; zoning around communities, pipelines, and so on. So, we are attempting to move ahead with this, but there are complicated outstanding issues.
The government has had 10 years to work out these issues. Is it going to take another 10?
Hopefully not.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Minister for being brief in his response. Mr. Speaker, does the Minister have any suggestions or new directions that he's going to take his department in getting this land use plan done and succeeding in his mandate, to his department and his own mandate, commitment to complete the land use plan? Thank you.
Yes, certainly going back to the mandate of this government, we do want to move ahead with all these types of negotiations. I can advise that a senior member of the government, the ADM of Environment and Natural Resources, is working very hard on this file.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
