Jackson Lafferty

Definitely that will be part of our discussion. We need to think of all the analysis that is out there. Having those individuals that are living with their parents that are working versus the ones that are looking after their grandparents or parents, those are the discussions that we need to have.

The income security framework, there was a review back in 2007. Out of the review we made some changes to reflect on the high cost of living in small, isolated communities and to provide more subsidies to those communities. On the side of that, we’ve looked at a seniors home fuel subsidy, as well, and over time we made some changes on the threshold as well. This is a policy area. We’re looking at this request that was made a couple of weeks ago on various aspects of where seniors have their grandchildren or children living with them but they’re at 90-plus years of age. That was a scenario they...

Yes, I do, Mr. Chairman.

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. To my left is Mike Reddy, policy and planning division, and to my right is Mr. Mark Aitken, director of legislation division.

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to be here today to speak to Bill 14, An Act to Amend the Conflict of Interest Act. I would like to thank the Standing Committee on Social Programs for its review of this bill.

The Conflict of Interest Act defines the circumstances in which a council or board member is considered to be in a conflict of interest when participating in decisions of that council or board.

The current act automatically deems that a member has received a benefit -- what the act calls an “indirect pecuniary interest” -- in situations where the member is also an employee of the...

That was also brought up. That will be part of the discussion we’ll be having with my department. We need to look at the overall structure of how we deliver subsidy programming. We talk about individuals living with their parents or grandparents and some individuals can be making more money than we are, standing up here. But we don’t charge them to be part of the household. So we ask for household income so they can be part of the process. So there’s no penalization on the elders. Those are the options we need to work with.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I did commit in this House a couple of weeks ago that we are looking at a seniors home fuel subsidy and if we need to make some changes, we need to work with the committee members. Those are areas that I did already commit. We will keep the Members posted as we move forward.

Mr Speaker, the 18 recommendations, as I stated, we are as a department going through each and every item and highlighting which areas should be expedited or, I guess, delivered immediately. Those are areas that we can share with the standing committee. The rest, if it is a long-term strategy, then we need to highlight those as a second phase and a third phase. We will be sharing that information with the standing committee. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I agree with the Member that we definitely need to do more reaching out to the communities so they’re aware of the hours that they’re entitled to and that they can access some additional hours if need be. Just additional information that is required, we’ll definitely do our part to deliver those key messages. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Part of the plan is we will be acting on amending some of the policies and programs in place. There have been recommendations brought forward to our attention. My department is going through each and every recommendation on which ones should be expedited and others might take a bit longer time. We will be going through each recommendation and see which recommendations we could implement right away. We will be informing the Members as we progress. Mahsi.