Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I've made a few statements on income support, and I was shocked to hear that my riding of the Mackenzie Delta has two times higher than the Northwest Territories, which is 7 percent. And in my riding, it's up to 15 percent. My main goal is to try and get these clients off of income support and on to being productive members of their respective communities.
Mr. Speaker, the department used to provide annual reports on income assistance, but these reports are no longer not publicly available anymore. Can the Minister commit to provide income assistance annual reports? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Mackenzie Delta. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I can commit to that to the Member.
Thank you for the commitment from the Minister. The Minister acknowledged in the House on February 8th, 2024, the intended goal of productive choices is not being met. Can the Minister describe how the department tracks clients' productive choices? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, the department used to track productive choices when it had it as a requirement under the program, but it is not a requirement under the program anymore. If the Member had an interest in seeing the historical data on productive choices, I could definitely work with the Member to pull some of that information. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister commit to reporting on the outcomes of productive choices that clients take, how many clients on the productive choices move forward to school or finding work? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, while the department no longer requires clients of income assistance to partake in productive choices, I do understand the goals of the Member, and I have really appreciated all the Member's statements that he has done on income assistance. It has provided me with the opportunity to learn about what his goals are and what the realities are in the communities that he represents.
With that being said, I want to confirm for the Member that as part of the new income assistance program that there is a performance measurement plan that is intended within that review and that the department intends to kind of keep an eye on what is happening within its community of clients and even within the communities that those clients live in. And so there is an intent to kind of keep an eye on this and to be able to report back.
In addition to that, Mr. Speaker, there are numerous deliverables within the business plan, within Education, Culture and Employment's plan that also speak to the number of income assistance clients who are employed and increasing that number. And so I really look forward to being able to work on that with the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister describe the wraparound supports provided to clients on income assistance with respect to productive choices? How is the department helping people make productive choices that will actually improve their independence and selfreliance? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I've had the opportunity to speak with multiple residents who, at some point in their lives, have been on income assistance. And one of the things that they have expressed to me is frustration about how difficult it was to find pathways off income assistance once they were on it. And so one thing that's very important to me and I know that the Member shares this interest as well is creating those pathways for people to be able to access employment, access entrepreneurship, and access education programs as well. And that's one of the reasons I'm so excited for the changes to income assistance is because it frees up more time for the client navigators to be able to work with 60 percent of the clientele who fall between the ages of 19 and 59 and to be able to create those pathways, work with them to find out what are their goals, and let's get you working towards them in a supportive way. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Monfwi.
