Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This government did exempt a significant amount of the federal supports that were provided to residents by the Government of Canada. We made clear that certain income from the government would be deducted. And so there should be no reason now why income support is clawing anything back because those residents would have claimed that they were receiving that income at that time. I'll also note that although it is delayed, the rollout of the new income assistance program, this government has increased income -- has approved increases to income assistance that we haven't seen in a generation. There's significantly more exceptions. There's more incentive for people to get out there and find work, or rather we're removing the disincentives to work. So we have made significant progress. It's just a matter of getting that program rolled out. I'd like to think if it wasn't for the evacuations, it would be coming out next month but that's yet to be determined. But I know staff are working hard to try and get this program off the ground so that we can better support residents. Because I agree, what we've been providing for the past, you know, 20 years, it's remained relatively static. And the prices have gone up in the past 20 years so change was needed. We committed to that at the beginning of this government, and we've made those changes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
R.J. Simpson on Question 1620-19(2): Exemption of Federal Income Sources from Income Assistance benefits
In the Legislative Assembly on October 5th, 2023. See this statement in context.
Question 1620-19(2): Exemption of Federal Income Sources from Income Assistance benefits
Oral Questions
October 5th, 2023
Page 6793
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