Mr. Chair, the programs that we have here to help people in need, I can certainly see the benefits of helping our elders as simple as possible, or helping the young mothers especially, or helping the child as simple as possible and also helping the seniors with some of their benefits from the federal government and also from the territorial government. What I want to ask the Minister in terms of what support we give to our people in the Income Assistance Program, has the department looked at the way we are dealing with people in terms of we are creating more dependency. Are we moving towards the interdependency or have we created a society of welfare dependants in the income assistance?
One of the biggest complaints that I get back at home is that we are teaching our young people, our people in general, to sit at home, lay on the couch, flick the TV off and on with their thumbs and in time to go over and pick up a cheque, because it is something that they are used to. We are not really helping them to be independent or self-sufficient. We may have good intentions, but is this something that the Minister’s department has looked at, has evaluated?
We are caught between a rock and a hard place and building the goals that we set out for and income assistance is a fancy word for welfare. So I want to ask that are we doing okay, are we doing good? Even though maybe our hearts and our minds are in that place are we really helping our people help themselves? Are we creating a stronger dependence on our system? I don’t know. Some people say it is a trap. So I want to ask, is his department really looking at the areas that we could be doing other things or not getting what we want. So I want to ask the Minister if he could shed a little light on my question here.