Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the changes to income assistance program last year removed the productive choice requirement and the need to seek and maintain employment. Is the Minister aware of any proposals to improve income assistance program for young people looking for work? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Monfwi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In regards to any proposals, if that is referring to future reviews, if there are some kind of scheduled right now, there aren't right now. What we're doing is we're looking at how the program is being implemented throughout the Northwest Territories, the new income assistance programming, and we're very much monitoring how that is flowing out the door given that it is a new program and want to ensure that we're well informed and up to date with how it's working for Northerners. Thank you.
Thank you. For students and young people looking to retrain, payments, including grants and loans that are received for training and education are currently considered unearned income. Can the Minister say if there is any plan to change this so that money received for education purposes does not reduce the income assistance they receive? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the changes to the program did allow for more unearned and earned income to be maintained by residents. Should residents be, you know, full-students or be pursuing post-secondary education, we do have a very robust student financial assistance program that we can move them into that does also come with living allowance supplements as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Monfwi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister explain what employment programs are available to young people on income assistance. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, we have career development officers that work for the department of education and their role is to connect, through our client navigators, income assistance clients with job opportunities for people who are able and are willing to take that route. So these career development officers have access to a suite of different workforce development programs that can be paired with an employer. So there is funding, and substantial funding out there, for example for training, for helping to pay a wage for somebody as they learn how to do a job, to really ease some of that stress off an employer who really is wanting to support somebody to improve their skills. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.
