Julie Green

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in August of this year changes came into effect for the Income Assistance Regulations administered by the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. The department changed the amount of both the food and the clothing allowances available to low-income families. Mr. Speaker, the department refers to the number of people in a household as units. Until the end of July a household included each member in the family counted as a unit for the purpose of food and clothing calculations.

At the beginning of August the new regulations counted only adults and mature...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to table the "Social Assistance Act Income Assistance Regulations" and "Exemplars, Income Assistance Changes, July 2016." Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, my question for the Minister  and please take this as I'm concerned, and it took a lot of work to get to this point. So I'm not too surprised you haven't heard from people who are on income assistance. My question is: why did your department change its income assistance regulations and stop funding food and clothing allowances for children? So we're talking specifically about NWT income assistance regulations.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Could the Minister tell us, then, whether the media report of the centre selling for $880,000 is accurate and why and how it came to be sold for that price? Thank you.

How did the NWT Housing Corporation arrive at a price for that land and building?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Minister for that answer. I think one of the major issues here is that I needed the help of the research department to understand exactly what was going on in the administration of these benefits. I stand by the remarks that I made, that every example shows a decrease in both food and clothing allowances.

I understand the Minister doesn't believe that this is the case, but that's what my research shows. So maybe -- and this is going to turn into a comment rather than a question. I'll follow up with written questions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I appreciate that the Minister has now enabled income assistance recipients to keep a wider range of income than was previously the case. However, the amount of money paid for both food and clothing has been reduced for income assistance recipients. How can the Minister justify reducing these assistance amounts when they are meant to alleviate poverty for the people who are most in need?

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to acknowledge the passing of my great friend and mentor Ruth Spence. Mrs. Spence was a force to be reckoned with from the time she arrived in Yellowknife. She was the first executive director of the YWCA in Yellowknife. She built the Y from a 12-bed home for single women to the 84 apartments at Northern United Place.

Mrs. Spence served several terms on the Yellowknife City Council, was chair of the Stanton Territorial Hospital, and the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority. She was honoured with one of the first Orders of the NWT last year. She lived the...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today is an important day. It is the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, as declared by the United Nations and marked each year on this date since 1987.

I believe all of us understand that poverty is a problem here in the Northwest Territories, as it is in much of the world. According to 2014's CRA tax filer data, 17 per cent of families and 22 per cent of children live in poverty in communities across the NWT.

In March, the federal government announced it would help families with income under $80,000 a year with the cost of raising their children...