Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think we’ve covered this ground already. I’d like to speak briefly, though, to the motion.
In the briefing with the department the Standing Committee on Social Programs discussed the fact that Income Security programs at the moment penalize a family member who moves in with another — say, an elderly family member — who is on income support. So if a granddaughter moves in with Grandma to help Grandma stay in her own home, and the granddaughter happens to work at The Bay — oh, I’m dating myself; at the Northern — then the income from the granddaughter is considered as household income, and Grandma’s rental amount goes up.
The intent of the motion is that the department needs to look at this particular situation. It’s certainly cheaper to have a family member stay in their own home than to put them into institutional care and have the government pay for their accommodation. So it needs to be looked at, and we are trying to encourage the department to look at this sooner rather than later and amend their policy so that basically the person who is on income support does not get penalized when someone moves in to help them out. Thank you.