Alfred Moses

Mr. Speaker, the Minister made a comment there that some of these recommendations were not applicable. How can this government have the NWT Action Plan for Persons with Disabilities when we have barely even discussed or even brought it up in the House, and have recommendations on the government document that is on the website, have recommendations that are not applicable to NWT residents, NWT residents that are living with disabilities when we try to talk about dignity, respect for all individuals of the NWT? How can he make the statement such as some of these not being applicable? Can he...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions today for the Minister responsible for Persons with Disabilities. Last year at some time, I made a Member’s statement on reports that this government does, and sometimes doesn’t take any to them, and sometimes these reports get shelved. Looking at the reports dealing with persons with disabilities, I’ve come across two here on the website. One is the NWT Action Plan for Persons with Disabilities, even though it deals with so many different areas: disabilities, education, employment, income, disabilities, sports, housing. I could each ask each one of the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Dolynny.

The Auditor General found that the majority of income security client files reviewed were not managed according to one or more program requirements.

The Auditor General’s staff sampled client files from April 2009 to June 2012 to determine if applicants were assessed and benefits paid according to requirements. A random sample of 65 client files from all four programs was used, from both regional and small community service centres. The file review focused mainly on compliance with eligibility requirements and timely and accurate payments.

On the...

Mr. Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment identifies income assistance overpayments, it should comply with the Financial Administration Manual requirements for collecting them. It should follow collection procedures by issuing invoices and written notifications per the required schedule, and forward outstanding debts to the Department of Finance for collection when required. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment provide support to income security appellants at least until the hearing, in the case of both new and existing income assistance clients and for ongoing student financial assistance clients. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that this committee recommends that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment set a standard for monthly client service officer caseloads, review staffing levels and rebalance workloads as needed. A backup system should be in place to provide additional experienced staff support where there is a temporary overload. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The principle of the motion is one that’s pretty interesting indeed, and with the new dollars that we’re getting, I do support that we have to have a debate. I feel that we are going to have a debate anyway, once we get these revenue resources into the government budget.

However, I don’t feel that I could support the motion at this time in regard to the therefore section allocating specific percentages of dollars into different areas within our government system. When we go through the business plans, we see areas such as deferred maintenance, infrastructure projects...

Mr. Speaker, with the theme of Disabilities Awareness Week creating accessible and welcome communities for all people, we only have a few communities that have accessible infrastructure. What is the Minister and his department doing to actually create accessible and welcoming communities within our 33 communities in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I know there were a lot of recommendations in the report. We’re five years into a government for a document that was tabled in the House in 2008. That’s five years of action and work that could have been done to addressing some of these recommendations. We’re less than half completed, still a lot that are ongoing, and some that haven’t even been addressed.

Can the Minister please go into detail on why some of these haven’t been addressed and why we’re not even getting half of these recommendations complete? Is it lack of resources? Is it lack of funding into these organizations? Because as we...

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to recognize my constituency assistant, Ms. Maia Lepage. I believe I did see her up in the stands earlier. She is also here chaperoning two Pages from Inuvik, Ms. Kyla Hvatum and Ms. Keisha Shaimaiyuk. They said they’ve been having a good time here in the capital as well as paging here in the Legislative Assembly. I’m really glad that they have had that experience and were able to come to Yellowknife and participate in the program. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.