Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Education, Culture and Employment, activity summary, advanced education, operations expenditure summary, $46.568 million. Does committee agree?

Thank you. Education, Culture and Employment, activity summary, advanced education, grants and contributions, contributions, total contributions, $34.133 million. Is committee agreed? Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a quick question here under small community employment. I’m not questioning the contribution, but I am wondering why – I believe this existed in the previous budget year in ‘11-12 – it’s showing up in ‘12-13 but it’s not there for ‘11-12. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. To respond we’ll go to Mr. Devitt.

So if this is only part of the funding for small community employment, what is the total amount? I presume the rest of it, whatever it is, is in another place in the budget. Is that correct?

Thank you. That’s all, Mr. Chair.

Education, Culture and Employment, activity summary, advanced education, grants and contributions, contributions, total contributions, $34.133 million. Is committee agreed?

Thank you. Page 10-25, Education, Culture and Employment, information item, advanced education, active positions. Any questions? Seeing none, page 10-27, Education, Culture and Employment, activity summary, income security, operations expenditure summary, $39.668 million. Does committee agree? Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m wondering if there are any plans for review of our income security programs specifically this fiscal year.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. The last review that was undertaken was back in 2007 and we made some changes to income security. We’ve increased in some areas. It’s been five years now so if that is the wish of committee, then we can certainly look at those areas as well.

I think there certainly is interest in that, especially in association with development of our Anti-Poverty Strategy. I think there’s a real opportunity there to have a good thorough review in the normal way plus other ways. I appreciate the Minister’s expression of openness there. I think that’s something we should do. I’m just wondering, is there a set time that we would normally review our income security programs.

I’m not sure if there’s a set time on a review basis, but since we’ve done the review back in 2007, I just got word from my acting deputy that we are still making some changes since 2007 following through with the recommendations that are brought forward. It is at the somewhat early stages still, but we are going to look at what’s out there now and what should be changed. I’ve already committed that we’ll look at it and see where we can make some changes, if we need to consult with various organizations as we’ve done before.

Just drilling down a little bit, the Seniors Home Heating Subsidy, obviously fuel rates are up quite a bit. I think it’s 54 percent, if I remember the number right – something like that – from 2007. Are there automatic adjustments? I suspect there are in that, but I’m wondering if there are automatic adjustments for those costs. Is it a number of litres as opposed to a value?

Yes, it is based on quantity. We pay for the base price. If there are any changes in fuel costs, it’s also adjusted into our subsidy. There is no impact on certain individual clientele. We continue delivering the program to those individuals, especially the seniors.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Bromley. I have speaking to page 10-27 Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. At the outset I want to say that I support the comments of Mr. Bromley in terms of a review of income support. There have been some changes made and I’m glad to see them, but I think history shows that when you make changes piecemeal without looking at the whole and seeing things in a total that it doesn’t necessarily create the best product. In my view, we need a review of the whole program and I think we particularly need to look at the policy of Productive Choices. I’m not so sure that is doing its job and that it really encourages people to get off income support. It’s tied in with ALBE and it’s a complex situation, but I’ll just leave that as a comment.

I wanted to also ask a question about the Seniors Home Heating Subsidy and I think the Minister, in his opening remarks, made some reference to the fact that they’re looking at seniors living with another person who has fairly high household income. Could I get an explanation from the Minister as to sort of whether or not I’m correct that the situation of seniors living with somebody else or somebody else living with a senior is being looked at and is the department contemplating an adjustment there.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. The Auditor General is doing an overall review of income support, more specifically to productive choices, whether it be home care, seniors’ fuel subsidy area. That is happening over the summer or fall. By Christmas we should have a report from them. Based on that, we need to re-evaluate our programming. It is going to be happening. When it comes to seniors’ subsidy, fuel subsidy, based on household income and I did instruct my department to look at some options. That is currently being developed as we speak. Once I review that and share it with my Cabinet colleagues, then I will definitely be sharing it with the committee members. It’s been brought to our attention that we need to make those changes so there’s not much impact on the seniors themselves. I’ve already committed that I’ll be reviewing those options and bringing that forward.

Thanks for the update from the Minister. I wanted to ask a question on this page related to student financial assistance. There has been a review of SFA which has been done. I think it’s completed. If I could get confirmation as to where that review is, if it is completed, and when Members could see the results.