Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to thank the honourable Minister for taking some action on some of the recommendations. Hopefully, when we do get all of the information compiled, translated and ready for the House, we will see some positive results from the Department of Social Services. I am not able to comment further because I am not sure what the responses are from the Minister. But when I do see the answers, I will probably be able to speak to the matter in the House.
When I travel I like to always go back to the time when I travelled through all my communities in my area, to Gjoa Haven, Taloyoak, Holman Island, Spence Bay and Pelly Bay, my home community. People who are solely dependent upon social assistance sometimes talk to me about their concerns. One of the concerns is that those who are able to do other things in order to earn a little bit of money, when they do earn money, the next social assistance payment is reduced. It seems to discourage people who are living on social welfare payments from looking for other means of earning income for their family. For instance, if a person who is a recipient of social assistance earns a little bit of money by carving, trapping or getting a casual part-time job in the community and then he goes to Social Services to collect his social assistance payment, he is asked if he has earned money. Native people, being very honest about it, usually say what they earn. They will get a receipt from someone in the community. Before long, that person stops looking for other ways of earning income for the family. I think this is not fair. If the recipient is allowed to earn money to a degree, perhaps six months, that person may get to like the job. He/she may be able to earn money by other means. Given time, that person is going to stop relying on Social Services. There should be a time frame whereby a social assistant will say, all right, you can earn income other than social assistance for a period of time, perhaps half a year or three months. That person will begin to like what he or she does by earning other than social assistance.
The way it is now, the system we have in place now discourages a social assistance recipient from trying to earn extra money, because every time a little bit of money is earned -- maybe through bingo and other ways of earning money -- right away, the social assistance on the next pay day is reduced. It doesn't seem to be very fair.
If you start doing something, before long, you are going to get to like it. If not, you are going to say, well, this is not for me. But in most cases, when a person is able to earn money, sooner or later he is going to say, this is the kind of job I like to do, something I can do given the opportunity and given the qualifications that person has. So give them a little time to get used to it, Mr. Chairman.
Secondly, Mr. Chairman, social assistance payment rates were increased in other communities across the board in the territories in our jurisdiction except for Pelly Bay, Gjoa Haven, Taloyoak and Holman Island. Of all the regions in the system, I thought that the cost of living would be one of the highest in the Kitikmeot region.
I feel that the assessment that was done by the Department of Social Services was unfair. I am not really able to speculate on it, but I feel that it was a little bit unfair. It may not have been unfair but, according to my opinion, that is as I see it.
So I wonder if the Minister for Social Services would revisit the assessment that was done by her department -- or was it done by other agencies, I don't know -- because the cost of living, especially in Pelly Bay, is very high. The only way that people are able to afford to buy the basic stuff from the co-op store is through the subsidy that we get from the system, from the government.
I know the cost of living in Taloyoak is quite high compared to other communities in other regions. I know the cost of living in Gjoa Haven is quite high compared to other communities in other regions. I am not sure about Holman Island. I am sure that the cost of living is high, as well, in that particular community.
What I am trying to say here is that we need fair assessment. Perhaps her staff in those communities could go down to the store, the co-op store, the Hudson's Bay Company or Northern, and just take some information, just walk around the store and find out how much a litre of milk is, how much a ten-pound bag of flour is, or what have you. That concludes my remarks for the time being.