Jackson Lafferty

That is what we’re doing. We’re topping up the wage that they’ve earned, and if they can’t get by on certain months, we do assist them. They have to fit the criteria, as well, where how much they make per household and how many children they have and so forth, and the cause of the factors as well. So we are subsidizing those individuals that are a pressing need for the Northwest Territories.

We realize there is a high cost of living in the Northwest Territories, so it’s all based on that as well. So income support we always say is just a last resort, because we want to have independence in...

The Income Support Policy states that it is a top-up for those low wage earners in the Northwest Territories to assist them in whether it be the heating bill or light bills, necessary expenses that are before us.

Again, this particular Income Security Policy has been amended in the past. We are certainly looking at those changes as necessary to meet the needs of the Northwest Territories. We have those clientele that have accessed our income security within our system so they have qualified through the Mortgage Subsidy Program up to three times in their lifetime. We do assist as best as we...

Mr. Speaker, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment supports community-based teacher education programming which provides increased access to students across the Northwest Territories. Graduates of these programs will increase the number of Aboriginal educators in our school system.

Currently Aurora College is delivering the community-based Teacher Education Program, including a community educator preparation component, for both the Teacher Education and Aboriginal Language and Cultural Instructor programs. In 2010-11 the college began offering the first year of the Aboriginal...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Part of this government’s overall goals and objectives are to work on decentralizing to the regions. Part of that is to have qualified people from the regions and from the communities. Of course, we’re always pushing for the education system into the communities and into the regions so we can have more qualified people from our regions so they can tackle all of those job opportunities that will be coming out, whether it be the pipelines or government jobs or community government jobs. Not only that, we also supported the Small Community Employment Support Program out of...

As I stated, we try to assess those individuals who are struggling with their payments as best as we can as income support clientele. As you know, income support covers the Northwest Territories with the 33 communities that we service and we cannot cover all mortgage payments, but we do cover to some degree some payments so they can get by through a couple of months or during the winter transition period. So we do assist those clientele as best we can according to our Income Security Policy. Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Over time we amended our policy on the income support security system to reflect the costs of being in the Northwest Territories. There is a mortgage payment. It is covered up to three times in the lifetime of the clients. We do assess to some degree on the mortgage as well. Not only that but the client should not be building assets while accessing income support as well. There are subsidies in place. We have amended those subsidies in 2007 to reflect the cost for the Northwest Territories. We will continue to make those changes as necessary.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled “Annual Report on Official Languages 2010-2011.” Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Again all I can say is that it is going to be happening in the wintertime. There is a brand new water truck and sewage truck to be delivered on this year’s winter road, 2012. That is the information we are getting from MACA. We work closely with MACA as well. The sewage tank is currently being built, ready for delivery on the winter road. That is happening. PWS is following through with that, definitely. Mahsi.

It’s not the first time we’ve heard that from a community member. That is part of the process that we need to discuss under the review. I hope that the general public and the particular individuals who may have some concerns, that they can raise that issue during the review process and that will be taken into consideration. Mahsi.

Madam Chair, we will definitely provide that information. As I stated, there are several schools that have initiated wood pellet boiler systems and I’ve only highlighted a couple. So we’ll definitely provide that detailed list. Mahsi.