Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, colleagues, welcome back. It’s good to see everyone here in the House after our Christmas break. I’m sure we’re all ready to roll up our sleeves and get to work on the budget and legislation which we’ll see come before us in the next few weeks.
Mr. Speaker, there are so many things which need to be talked about, I had to choose from a long list for my statement today, but I decided to start with a long-standing, seemingly never-ending issue, that of income support.
An inquiry recently came to my office. It was a plea for help to assist a constituent with an income support application and the policies which govern that application. These are not new policies. We have all as MLAs run into them during our terms. We’ve encountered the oppressive, depressing policies which our residents are subjected to when they need some financial assistance from our government.
Mr. Speaker, consider this situation. A resident who has been employed quite successfully for some time but earning a small wage, enough to live on, mind you, but not a big salary, but enough for them
to be able to remain independent. This individual has had their job reduced to half time and now struggles to make ends meet, not hard to understand when the income is less than $1,000 a month. So, income support was applied for. But wait. They have an RRSP, a Registered Retirement Savings Plan, carefully saved over the years of a better wage. Good planning, I say, and kudos to them for being proactive and ensuring financial stability in their later years, but not so ECE.
Income Support Policy demands that the resident cash in any extra money, money such as an RRSP or the value of a vehicle. Use that up before income support can be granted, says Education, Culture and Employment.
We as a government seem determined to force people into poverty so we can dole out a few dollars to help them get by. We remove any independence from the individual and force them to be completely reliant on government to live. How does that meet ECE’s stated goal of moving income support clients to independence? This “cash in all your extra money policy” ensures the individual is kept reliant on government, ensures that government will have to continue to provide financially for this person when they could be given the help they asked for and not be a bigger drain on our resources.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted