Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It has been a long, cold and difficult winter for a lot of people and occasionally people fall on hard times and sometimes tragedies beset people in the North. We are really one big family here. We know most of the people in our constituencies.
I’ve recently had a situation where a family that has been struggling has just been pushed over the edge, I suppose, financially by the cost of maintaining a home during this very long, cold winter. This family is supporting an adult with disabilities in their own home at a very, very minimal level of support from this government.
If this family were not caring for their son who is disabled, and if he was in assisted living or in a southern institution, our government would not think twice to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to support this individual, but he’s being cared for by his own family. His family is in distress.
Have we ever or do we have any kind of a benevolent emergency compassionate fund whereby if Members and Ministers agreed that there was a candidate that was a case where someone needed a little support to carry on and not lose their home or have their power turned off or in some way have something catastrophic happen, is there such a fund in this government?
I attend a church in Hay River and it’s just a small church with a $200,000 a year budget. We even have a benevolent fund for if somebody shows up on our doorstep and is in serious trouble.
I’d like to know, has the government ever had something like this? Is there anything like this available? Thank you.