Thank you, Minister. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you, Madam Chair. On page 46 for the home heating subsidy, I do get calls on this from quite a few elders in my riding. This one is a well-used program. I'm just looking at some of the numbers here. In terms of being oversubscribed, maybe undersubscribed, how is this program looking? Is it being used to its fullest extent? That's my question for the Minister. Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you. To go back to the Member's last question, I think it was 2010 that there was a full-time position, and after that, it was moved to a part-time position. This program, I can ask Mr. Saturnino to expand on whether it's fully subscribed or not, the Senior Home Heating Subsidy. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Saturnino.

Thank you. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you. Last question, and perhaps a comment: this is really important, having a subsidy in the first place for our elders. They work all their lives, and they have to live off their CPP, their old age pension. It's so expensive to just get by with our food and whatnot. This a really important program. I'll have some other higher-level questions regarding our supports for our seniors, but I think that this is definitely a really important program. It takes the pressure off our senior citizens, like I said, who worked really hard and who need to heat their homes in winter. Right now, it's really cold, and I think it's a really important program. I'll just leave that as a comment. Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Actually, this is a great segue because I also wanted to ask about the Senior Home Heating Subsidy. When the department was stating that they made some changes in 2018, I believe those were the changes of moving from a volume allocation to seniors to a monetary allocation. Is that correct, please? Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you. That's correct.

Thank you. Member.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think the Minister knows where I'm going with this. I have had a lot of the seniors comment that this change was detrimental to them. It's hard for them to budget. They don't know necessarily then how much fuel they are going to get each year; it's very dependent upon oil prices. This year was great. We did see a drop in prices, and some indicated that they actually did do an extra fill-up at some point to take advantage. However, it does lead to a lot of uncertainty and stress when they don't know and may have to purchase, in a particularly cold year, more fuel for themselves. My question is, for the department: will there be any move back towards making this a volume-based subsidy versus a monetary one? Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you. In addition to changing how fuel is allocated, the thresholds were also increased to allow more seniors to access the program. In previous years, before the change, the program was actually underutilized. After the changes, there were more seniors eligible and more seniors taking advantage of more benefits. In that sense, it has been a good move.

However, it was unfortunate that, the year of the change, there was also a spike in oil prices, and that really hit a lot of people. That was a lot of the concern. The program, as it is now, is intended to fund about 80 percent of the average heating cost of a home in one of the three different zones that we have. It's not a 100 percent grant; it's an 80 percent subsidy. That being said, these changes were made a few years ago, and it's good practice to always review a program after it's been running a few years. We are undertaking that work right now, and we will see if there are improvements that can be made. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm glad to hear that. I'm always a big fan of going back and looking at what we're doing. Then if we do have a particularly cold season, is there any mechanism or such where, if an elder or senior finds that they've maxed out on their amounts, they can apply to get additional funding or support to help them in the case that it's an unanticipated expense that they didn't have? Thanks.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you. These come across my desk all the time as Minister from MLAs where a senior in their community has used up their entitlement. I think, so far, everyone I have seen has been eligible for Income Assistance to help get them fuel, so I haven't seen anyone who has run dry yet. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. My next question, then, still sort of to do with the senior supports: I notice that it's for low- to modest-income NWT seniors, but to maybe actually removing the cap or the thresholds, or the income testing I guess it's called, so that all of the seniors contribute? What I look at the fact that each person coming into the territory brings $37,000 to the territory. For the number of seniors that may be over this cap or amount, I feel like we're almost kind of punishing them for staying or for being successful in their lives. I think my colleague from Thebacha has made these kinds of comments in other areas, as well. We want seniors to stay. They're a vital part of our community. They provide a whole bunch of supports around elections and things that others don't volunteer for. To me, to punish a few -- "punish" isn't the right word, but to leave out a few just because they happen to have been a bit more successful in life, I'm just wondering if there's a look at maybe removing that from the department. Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you. We value our elders, our seniors. That's why we probably have the most generous benefits to seniors in the country by far. That's why, often, people move up here if they have children working up here. I know plenty of people who have moved to the territory to take advantage of that after they have retired. There would be financial implications to a move like that, and it's something that, going through the review, we always look at every option. That will be something that obviously will be discussed, but I can't make any commitments as to whether or not that would happen. Thank you.