Thank you, Member. Minister of ECE.

Yeah, and the Member's correct, we are doing a review of the income assistance program. This is definitely something that is being looked at. I've had discussions with the Minister of Housing. I've had discussions with the department. Ultimately, it's a -- it might come down to who pays. You know, if we remove the requirement to be on the housing waitlist, it would likely cost the income assistance program significantly more money, millions of dollars more each year, but it's a way to free up units. So it is a discussion that is ongoing. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I know part of the review, there's -- and in the mandate where there's a plan to bring in a seniors income assistance stream and a persons with disabilities stream. Do we have a date for when we expect that to come into force now? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of ECE.

Thank you. So, you know, what the initial thinking is is to have an income assistance program for people who aren't in the workforce and who aren't going to be likely going back into the workforce. And so persons with disabilities who are not in the workforce and who won't be going back, as well as seniors who have -- you know, have -- let's say aged out or retired from the workforce, and the plan is to have that operational by March 2023. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Can the Minister speak to whether -- I guess I'm wondering -- and this is going to take a bit of nuance and perhaps I'm asking the question with wrong -- whether the goal is to have a completely different program for peoples with disabilities and seniors who are not ever planning to re-enter the workforce, or to just have --to alter the rules? You know, I think we already have different payroll rules in regards to them under income assistance. And I guess what I'm getting at, would it -- there's a lot of other benefits flying around for seniors and peoples with disabilities and then income assistance itself through the regulations is very, very prescriptive in how the formula is allotted. But would it be possible -- is the plan that this would be a different stream and, for example, if MLAs wanted to increase it by 5 percent but not increase the other income assistance streams, would that be possible, or is this just simply some tweaks to the income assistance regulations for those people? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister of ECE.

Thank you. The plan is to have a completely different stream. There's no point in having someone fill out the same application as someone who's in a completely different -- in completely different circumstances.

We also have the, you know, additional seniors benefits, seniors home heating subsidy, seniors supplementary benefit, and we want to see how we can perhaps incorporate those into the program as well. You know, we want to support seniors and persons with disabilities. And we want to do it in a respectful way. You know, there is a stigma around income assistance. So a lot of people don't like applying for it. They don't like to -- you know, to admit that they've applied for it. And so what we want to do is create a program that is understood to be for seniors and persons with disabilities and so that that then -- and remove that stigma so that if you need home heating or you need help with your rent or you need whatever, you just go to this one program. That's the ideal. Will it turn out that way? You know, time will tell. But that's -- you know, that's my dream. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I also share that dream, so I look forward to this work.

I guess as part of this work, can I get a -- or can the Minister tell me whether they're also working to perhaps somewhat align with federal programs? I know this has been one of those complications is that if a change to old age security is made or a change to Canadian disability benefits or, you know, have some sort of -- there's just so many federal programs, dozens of them, that apply to people on disabilities or people who are seniors with different reporting requirements. I think probably it would be wise to look at them all and try to somewhat align the criteria and reporting requirements so that, you know, if one is based on T4 income, ours is also based on T4 income.

Can I just, you know, get a commitment out of the Minister that we will be looking at the various federal programs and how they fit into these two streams as well? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister of ECE.

Thank you, yes, we're doing that. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any further questions to income security? Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a couple questions. First of all, I know in Hay River there, I have a number of clients that come into my office, and lately it's with the pandemic going on office closures and that. I'd just like to know with the department, how are those payments to income support clients made? Is there mostly direct deposits, cheques, cash? I'm just not sure how that works. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of ECE.

Thank you. So the client service officers will work with the clients to determine how they would like their payments. So I believe we always encourage direct deposit. It's -- you know, it's just safer. I know that I've lost cheques personally and so I use direct deposit whenever I can. But some clients prefer to get cheques, and some clients prefer to get a cheque every week as opposed to once a month, or every two weeks. Everyone's personal circumstances are different, and so we work with them. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So the client actually has the option of getting paid weekly, every two weeks, three weeks? Is that -- or monthly? Whatever they want? Is that the way it works? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of ECE.

Thank you. Yes. And I don't know if they do every three weeks. But I would imagine one week, two weeks, or four weeks are probably the standard. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And direct deposits are pretty straightforward. They usually know they're going to get their money.

With respect to cheques, if for some reason, like during the pandemic, if the office was closed, what -- and staff weren't there, say cheques were supposed to be mailed -- or provided on Thursday and nobody was there and there was a sign on the door, what would be -- would there have been a plan in place to ensure that those cheques would be made available to the clients? Because a lot of the clients are basically living, you know, possibly paycheque to paycheque, and it's -- and it's very important to them. Thank you Madam Chair.