Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't have those numbers on hand. But I can say that what the Member is speaking about is a few years ago, the Government of Canada introduced a number of different benefits for Canadians to help them get through the worst days of the pandemic. We as a department exempted CERB payments so those were not counted against income assistance applications; however, the later benefits were not exempted. And so clients who received those benefits, all they needed to do was declare that they received those. So even just verbally telling the client service officer that they received them so that we could count that because that's all income needs to be declared to receive income assistance. So what's happening now is that we're discovering clients who did not declare that income and we're following the regulations, and unfortunately there are some individuals who are being cut off. Not individuals. I've given direction to take a compassionate approach to this while still making sure that we comply with our own laws. Thank you.
R.J. Simpson on Question 1484-19(2): Income Assistance
In the Legislative Assembly on March 29th, 2023. See this statement in context.
Question 1484-19(2): Income Assistance
Oral Questions
March 29th, 2023
Page 6027
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