Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to talk today about my concern about the transfer of the public housing rent subsidy to income support in Education, Culture and Employment. I have always been against this transfer. It did not seem like a good idea to me from the beginning, more than four years ago.
In the NWT we have always acknowledged that many people need help with their housing costs to keep housing affordable. In fact, many people consider that providing access to affordable housing is a longstanding obligation of this government like education and health care. In small NWT communities, no one felt embarrassed to be in public housing. Everyone was located in public housing of some kind. Even the government provided housing for its staff. The Northern Stores provided housing for its manager. The RCMP had housing. There were not very many homeowners except for a few government senior managers in Yellowknife and regional centres.
However, the government changed things. Some of those changes have not been for the better. Now if you need help with your housing costs you have to access the Income Support Program. I know working mothers who pay $500 to $600 a month for their rent and have a regular job and now have to be as income support client. They have to report their income regularly to an income support officer. These concepts may work well somewhere else in Canada, maybe in a big city like Toronto; however, they have not worked well here.
I do not think that we have served our people well by making so many Northerners become clients on social assistance. I think we can change back to the understanding we had in the NWT, that housing is an extraordinary expense in the NWT and that most Northerners need assistance to manage those costs. I think it is time for the government to acknowledge that sometimes the way we do things in the NWT is the right way for us and we don’t need to change things just to be in fashion with southern Canada. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.