Caroline Cochrane

At the current time, right now, we don't do the indexing, but we have made a number of enhancements to the programs just in the last few years. We have increased our senior citizen supplementary benefit. We have increased the NWT child benefit. We have improved our senior home heating subsidy. We have extended our rental allowances for single applicants. Then, of course, in our proposed mains for 2019-2020, we proposed an increase for disabled and age allowance for people. I am looking forward to the results of all of the MLAs and Indigenous governments. If that is a concern, then I am looking...

Education, Culture and Employment is supposed to be actually providing as much, the best, customer service as possible. I cannot say that every single person is always doing that, but the direction is that they should be very consumer focused, and they should be, actually, if there are seniors who are struggling financially, they should be talking about all of the options. So, if they are accessing this program and their income is low and they are still in need, then my hope, and I will look into that, is that they should actually be referring people and saying, "Would you consider income...

What I do know is that not all seniors actually got less money. It is that some of the regions, the higher zones, zone 3, actually, had an increase because their cost of living was substantially higher than, I'm going to say, it is a lot higher cost of living in Tuktoyaktuk than it is in Yellowknife or in Hay River. I hate to say that, but that is the reality we face.

This program actually extended it so more seniors can actually access the program. Not all seniors, but it was based on looking at comparable communities to see what their cost of living factors were, market baskets, and defining...

Sometimes, in honesty, I think that sometimes we work too slow. Then I have to remind myself I only got this portfolio in April. I won't even have an actual year until it is finished, but I think we are making a lot of progress. What can be done? The person will be hired as our associate deputy minister. Our overall vision statement for the Northwest Territories and for the polytechnic will be done in this Legislative Assembly.

Okay. I am going to really try because, you know me, I like to talk. What is a polytechnic university besides Aurora College right now? A polytechnic university is actually really hand-on learning. It looks at taking in practicum plus the academic learning with that. So what it gives us that it does not have at Aurora College is that Aurora College is limited because it is a college. They have partnerships that can access university monies, but they don't actually get that money themselves. I don't know this money. It came out in a city report. I believe that it said that there was, like, $500...

I think that I have been called many things since I have taken this position. However, I have not been called "easy" and I have not been called "lazy," so I am not looking for easy answers out. I am doing my job as a Minister, and that means protecting all people in the Northwest Territories, in all communities. As stated, I see benefits in all three communities. Climate change is affecting our northern communities more so than Yellowknife. Not to say it's not affecting Yellowknife, but it's affecting them more so. Would that not make sense to study there? If we are going to do ENR programs...

Once that person is hired, which I will be announcing, again, later on, the implementation plan will take place at that time. Again, we have committed. I have said that we will take that person, they will located in Yellowknife so that we can work very closely with them over the next couple of years, but the question still remains, Mr. Speaker: do we need to move every single position out of Fort Smith, at this time, into Yellowknife? Do we need to move the finance? Do we need to move aspects of that? Those are questions we need to look at more in depth. Also, it cannot be about one community...

As stated earlier, we will be doing a full review of the program. This was the first year that we have implemented the changes, so we will be doing a full review in the summer coming up here. Yes, if it makes sense. We try to work closely with the Seniors' Society, recognizing we don't ask every single senior in the Northwest Territories, but we do try to work with the society that is in charge of representing them to do this. We will work closely with them and we will look at it.

One of the things that is noted, though, is, when we only moved litres, there are a lot of seniors in small...

We tried to look at it more in a fairness and equitable manner, because I couldn't really justify how the funding was provided beforehand. We used a market basket figure to look at how the communities are, so looking at similar costs between communities of the cost of living to define how we would do it.

In zone 1, a person who is making $56,000 or less is entitled to an annual amount of $2,700 a year. In zone 2, someone who is making $64,000 or less is entitled to $3,600 a year in fuel subsidy. In zone 3, which is our most isolated communities, someone making an annual income of $73,000 or...

I am trying to remember back if that was actually because, again, I was allocated this portfolio in April, and so I am trying to remember and I will have to get back to the Member on whether that was just before I took over or just after I took over, but it was fairly soon that it came up. I do know that they work closely with the Seniors' Society. I don't know who the other stakeholders were, but I will find out that. Again, stating that we are doing a full review of this program in the summer after this one year is finished.