Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a few questions about the impacts of the Housing Corporation's adjustments to public housing utility rates. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister: how is the department's income security programs division responding where its clients have been affected by changing public housing utility rates? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My understanding is that the withdrawal of the utility payments by the Housing Corporation was done in September 2018, so we haven't really seen a huge impact of it yet. I should clarify in stating that not everyone that is in housing programs is actually an income support clientele. It is combined.
Our goals within the income support program are to make sure that people have enough to meet their basic needs. We are ensuring that no one that is on income support that is in public housing or outside, not only in public housing, but in market housing, that their utilities are paid. The effect to the people that are on income support would be nil, other than basically they would now have to bring in their utility bill to be paid. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I asked a similar question to the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation. Has the department itself calculated how the Housing Corporation's changes to public housing utility rates has impacted demand on income support programs?
Like I said earlier, we haven't really looked at that too much, but it is a bigger thing than that, what I am actually concerned about, and I had spoke on that before in the House, is that income support will be necessary for some people. People with disabilities or seniors, people that have specific challenges in life, they might need support for their whole lives, but we also need to focus on people actually progressing in their life or productive choices.
That is why I had committed earlier to actually working with the non-profits, setting up a table before the end of this calendar year, so that we can work more on how we can support people that are on income support so that -- I hate to say this -- we don't have people thinking that they can just, you know, "I don't have to work. I can just lay on the couch and collect a paycheque," because that is not okay.
I don't say that in a derogatory term. I don't mean that derogatorily, but we have kind of set up a society that almost says it is okay, and we need to change that. We need to focus on giving people who are on income support the pride and the goals and the opportunities so that they can progress in life, and that is what I am looking to do. That is the goal of the focus when we meet with the non-profits is: how do we support people better than what we are doing?
We don't have non-profit organizations in all our communities, just for the record.
How will the department work with the Housing Corporation to ensure a coordinated government approach to this mandate commitment?
I am not 100 percent sure what mandate commitment we are actually talking about, because we have quite a few mandate commitments. I am sorry, but I have to ask clarification on what mandate commitment specifically the Member is asking about.
It seems to be a mandate commitment to have our public housing residents to have an increase in payment to their power bills. That is what I am referring to.
Thank you for clarifying. I didn't realize that the utilities was actually a mandate commitment, so I will have to look on that. I can say that we need to support people so that they become as self-reliant as possible, recognizing that self-reliance isn't something that will be attainable for everyone.
I understand the reasoning for the Housing Corporation's decision. I used to be the Housing Minister, and my understanding is that within some communities, because people weren't paying their utilities, houses were becoming the public car wash. When people were hot in the winters, instead of turning down the thermostat, they were opening windows.
I understand the theory on how we needed to get people more taking care of their utilities and realizing the cost. I think what we missed in that is that we need to look at income support as well. How do we reward people for actually being more conservative with the utilities? We are in a day of climate change. We are in a day of really ugly things coming for our children and our grandchildren if we don't start getting people more conservative, looking at how can I as a person help impact what is happening within our world, within the Northwest Territories? I need to look at more ways to be more positive and reinforcing and rewarding good behaviour versus punishing bad behaviour. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.
