Julie Green

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are about income assistance, and in order to avoid the kind of misunderstanding that I had with the Minister yesterday, I just want to start by asking a preliminary question: is the Minister up-to-date with the changes that have taken place in the income assistance regulations? Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. So what? Well, first almost a quarter of NWT children live in poverty, 22 per cent. The Canada Child Tax Benefit is supposed to alleviate poverty for these children and low income families, but NWT families on income assistance are being shortchanged. The federal government has given with one hand, and the GNWT has taken away with the other. Poor families are the ones out of pocket. I will have questions. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Thursday, October 20, 2016, I will move the following motion: I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Great Slave, that notwithstanding Rule 4, when this House adjourns on October 20, 2016, it shall be adjourned until Tuesday, October 25, 2016. And further, that any time prior to October 25, 2016, if the Speaker is satisfied after consultation with the Executive Council and Members of the Legislative Assembly that the public interest requires that the House should meet at an earlier time during the adjournment, the Speaker may...

Mr. Speaker, the point here is that, had those regulations not been changed, the people on income assistance would have been receiving more money. What the Minister has said is that the Child Tax Benefit is the occasion for reducing those amounts of money. That means that he is making these changes on the backs of the people who most need this money. We're not talking about huge amounts of money here, but it's important to people with low income. I'd like to know whether the Minister will turn back these reductions in income assistance so that children are once again funded for food and...

Right around the time we were elected, so in other words when the Minister was not yet the Minister, the treatment centre sold for almost double the price of the appraisal, which I take to be $880,000. Does the Minister have any idea how the building suddenly gained all that value?

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Today I have some questions for the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation about the sale of the treatment centre on the Detah Road. My first question is: does the sale include both the land and the building? Mahsi.

The information I'm drawing on is information that the Minister provided. We're talking about the amount of money that's paid to income assistance recipients. In every example that the Minister provided, the amount of money paid for clothing and for food has gone down.

While the bottom line for most people is better, it's not as good as it could be because the overall effect of the Canada Child Tax Benefit has been diminished. So my question again is: how can the Minister justify not enabling families to collect the whole amount that they are eligible for?

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I wonder if the Minister could tell me what the rationale is for reducing clothing and food benefits to income assistance recipients since the introduction of the Canada Child Tax Benefit? Masi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I'll go to the bottom line, and this is what it is: the GNWT is helping to perpetuate the poverty trap. They are not allowing families to experience the full benefit of the new federal anti-poverty initiative. Shame, Mr. Speaker, shame for trying to save money on the backs of the most vulnerable residents of this territory. Mahsi.

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.