Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First of all, I think Mr. Dent has a very good point about looking at a sliding scale for the amount of earned income. I think that is a good suggestion for us to take up and see what we can do in that area. We need to continue the program that was instituted back in the mid-90s, 1996, I believe. I think Mr. Dent may have developed this system, which I think is very good. I am sure the Member still agrees with that.
I know the federal government has done some programs on this to provide a combined system. It was done in B.C. and one of the other provinces, whereby individuals were allowed, and supported financially through income support, but allowed to keep what they earned. We can take a look at that program and see how it worked and how successful it was.
On the seniors benefit, Mr. Chairman, this was an important area because Members had raised a lot of concerns about that previously, of the inequity if you were in an area that had a colder climate, longer winters and so forth. What has been done is that the amount of support provided is different per zone. Zone one has, by way of example, five cords of wood and zone two would be increased to six cords of wood, zone three would be seven cords of wood, or the equivalent, Mr. Chairman, of fuel supply; natural gas, propane, oil, wood or electricity.
The other thing that we have done is raised the thresholds for zones one, two, and three. The threshold was $30,000, which has been increased to $35,000. Then we have a sliding scale for that, so you get 75 percent for $1,200 above that, 50 percent for $2,500 above that, and 25 percent for $3,700 above that. Thank you.