Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Standing Committee on Legislation also reviewed Bill 5, an Act to Amend the Social Assistance Act at its public meeting on December 7, 1992. The committee would like to thank the Honourable Nellie Cournoyea and officials from the Departments of Social Services and Justice for presenting the bill. The bill would amend the Social Assistance Act to revise the structure for social assistance appeals. Under the act people who have applied for social assistance or who receive social assistance may appeal a decision about their eligibility for social assistance or about the amount of money they may receive.
The first appeal is to the social assistance appeal committee. Decisions of appeal committees may be appealed further to the social assistance appeal board. Right now the act provides that the appeal committees must be composed of between three and five members each. This bill would provide that committees would be composed of up to eight members each. A panel of between three and five could then be designed by the chairperson to hear an appeal. This amendment would provide more flexibility in allocating members to hear appeals. Currently there is difficulty finding three to five committee members available at the same time to hear an appeal, particularly during the summer when many people are on the land.
The bill would also allow the chairperson of the appeal board to designate a panel of between three and five members to hear the appeal. This bill would also add sections to the act to protect the confidentiality of information acquired in the administration of the act. The bill would provide that any such information may not be disclosed except in the course of the person's duties. Specific exceptions would allow information to be disclosed with the consent of the person to whom the information relates, to the Financial Management Board and to other governments for the purpose of exchange of information about benefits. Similar provisions exist in other territorial legislation such as the Medical Care Act.
This bill also proposes amendments regarding regulations that are made under the act. The bill would validate certain social allowance payments that were made according to a food allowance rate table before the table was incorporated in a regulation, and would allow social assistance regulations to have retroactive effect back to the beginning of the fiscal year. This would enable the department to make payments according to new rates as soon as they are authorized without being required to wait for the registration of the regulation.
During the standing committee's review and discussions on Bill 5 it was noted that this bill would transfer the responsibility for making regulations, prescribing the amount of social assistance that may be given to persons in need, from the Minister to the Financial Management Board. This may be an issue that Members wish to pursue during committee of the whole.
Generally, the committee Members were in support of this bill and a motion was carried December 7, 1992, to report Bill 5 to the Assembly as ready for committee of the whole. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.