Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. For that, we will go to Mr. Heide.

Thank you, Mr. Heide. Ms. Bissaro.

Mr. Chair, that’s good. That’s all I have. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Continuing on page 10-29, I have Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. When it comes to income support with the federal Minister’s recent announcement about increasing the amount of insurable hours, has the department done an assessment yet? It will affect the income support of people if it’s harder for people to get on, something like that.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. As you know, we just heard an announcement last week. It is a federal program. Income support obviously will be prepared for any impacts when it

comes to EI recipients. They’ve extended longer hours, but I believe, from my understanding maybe with Minister Kenney, there is the two-phase approach, Yellowknife and then small communities on unemployment rates. Based on that, I believe it’s 8 percent hovering around Yellowknife and it’s around 20, 30 or 40 percent depending on the communities. He obviously stated that there won’t be much of an impact on the small communities, but for sure there will be some for Yellowknife.

I’m glad the Member is raising that issue because we are preparing for that and we are getting ready with income security for the individuals who will be impacted. Mahsi.

Just something to be aware of and hopefully the department tracks that. Yes, there is higher employment but that means there is low employment, meaning it will be harder for people to get jobs. I don’t see the correlation here at all. I don’t know if they can track it and maybe a year from now raise it, should it impact us negatively having more people on income support as opposed to unemployment insurance, Mr. Chair. Thanks.

That’s exactly what we’ll be doing, working with our federal counterparts. They do have their stats as well. We provide our NWT stats and information to them. So, yes, I agree with the Member that we need to closely monitor this. Mahsi.

We’re on page 10-29, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you. Just a few questions. My first question is on the Senior Citizens Supplementary Benefit Program. I know at one time – and maybe the Minister can help me out here – that some of our seniors didn’t know about the Guaranteed Income Supplementary Benefit from the federal government. They weren’t applying for it and it has to be applied for every year. Some of the senior citizens were wondering why, after one year, their income cheque was down low again. Is there something within the department where the workers notify, maybe through the service centres, to fill out these guaranteed supplementary benefits? I say this because, personally, my father at one time didn’t know about this and didn’t receive his benefit for two years. I want to know if this was being looked at to help some old-timers with this issue here.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Heide.

Thank you, Mr. Heide. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Certainly I’m a fan of the service centres that we established. I think that’s something that this government has certainly done well within our communities. Speaking with people who manage that office, they love to work with the elders and the elders love to converse in their own language in these centres. That’s a good thing. As Mr. Heide was saying about a checklist from the elders, especially at the end of the year, have you done this, have you applied for this. I check this for the seniors. Sometimes we get so busy, we forget things. If you have an elder coming around this time of the year, you know their benefits are going to be cut off, you have a checklist for them and go through it so the elders know that they are keeping on top of things and will be more efficient for our government. That’s what I wanted to remind the Minister about.

The other point I want to make is with income assistance, we know that in some of our communities the employment rate is low, as the Minister stated, and to meet our goals and visions to have strong, independent Northerners, individual families, that the Income Assistance Program… Is this the type of program that we can help people go on the land or families to go on the land under this program? If you want to go on the land with your family, take your children, we have a program. Could we make it a simple matter if a family wants to go out, get their groceries, get their gas, if they aren’t doing any type of work in the community and just want to spend some time in the bush with their family? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. This particular area obviously falls under productive choices within income security. We support individuals who want to go out on the land. We have to work with organizations as well. If they have to handle a chainsaw, a rifle or a snowmobile, those are some liabilities we have encountered in the past, but we have always worked around other organizations, whether it is the band council or hamlet council or other agencies in the community. Those are some areas we have assisted in. Perhaps it is two months of income assistance if they want to go out on the land, so we’ve done that before. We want to increase it even further. I agree with the Member that we need to encourage those individuals who are more than willing to be out on the land harvesting for their families. That is a

productive choice within our income security division area. Mahsi.

I totally agree with the Member that we need to move these obstacles that are in the way. That’s why I did a Minister’s statement, as well, that we are getting rid of some red tape within our department. This is an area that works well, whether it is the two-month advance for harvesting on the land where they can bring their families. We assist them. We’ve come around with the liability issues. We’ve done that in the past and we will continue to push that forward.

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Committee, we’re on 10-29, activity summary, income security, operations expenditure summary, $42.115 million. Does committee agree?

Page 10-30, activity summary, income security, grants and contributions, $11.136 million. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. A few months ago I had asked the department if they had done some type of analysis on their grants and the cost of them and the sense of opportunity costs. I don’t ever recall receiving any type of feedback on that initiative. I can go through the further detail of that if that doesn’t jog enough of their memory to what my issue was to the Minister or the staff.