Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to speak on a problem that has come up several times in this House, the new initiative that is in place to harmonize income support and housing. Mr. Speaker, I had an opportunity to go home this weekend and I think the majority of the concerns I heard were raised around this subject from people who are on income support and our elders.
Many of our elders were left with the impression that they were told they would be better off in public housing than if they had their own place. They would not have to take care of their rent, their power and there would be no rent to pay. Mr. Speaker, through this harmonization program, a couple of years after many elders moved into public housing they are now being told that the rules are changing, that they will have to pay, though right now they do not. The rent will be based on anything over $500.
Mr. Speaker, many of our seniors and elders in our communities have earned their pensions. They have earned their way, they have paid their way, they paid their taxes and they have lived to a point in time where we should allow them to enjoy their pensions and the remaining time that they have with us.
What do we do here? Implement a regime that I see as just another form of a claw back to take money away from our seniors and people in need in our communities. Mr. Speaker, another area of concern was with regard to the initiative that we have under income support. If you are on income support and you find employment, you cannot get back on income support for two months after you apply. You have to wait two months until you can be reassessed and back on.
With seasonal employment in the Northwest Territories, where the majority of the work takes place in the summer or in the winter between December and March, those are the two periods of time that you will have to work. If you received employment in those two times of the year, you will not be able to get back on income support for four months out of that year, which means you will have to pay for the rent based on that notion for four months of the year because you will not be classified as an income support client.
Mr. Speaker, I would ask this government to seriously consider what this harmonization program is really going to do to people in our communities, our elders and people who presently are on income support.