Kevin O'Reilly

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. All of the above makes me wonder why income assistance recipients are left out of annual increases to meet the valid need of paying higher costs to stay fed, clothed, and sheltered. In the absence of a guaranteed annual income, levels of support provided by income assistance cannot lift people out of poverty. I will have questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Can the Minister explain? There's a loss of two jobs. What were those two positions and are they currently filled or what? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I appreciate the explanation. I'm all for efficiency, but I don’t want that at the expense of fairness. It's my understanding is that the grounds and who can actually file an appeal are very, very limited which I think can lead to issues of credibility of our hiring process. What is the department doing in terms of the fairness of staffing appeals to ensure that we can maintain credibility and confidence in our staffing processes? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chair, I think it's good that the report will be provided to committee, but I guess I'm hoping that the Minister will commit to table the document in the House. I think we want to show that we're leading by example, so I'd ask if he could table the report in the House. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. We'll look forward to that in 2018. I had one other matter I wanted to pursue. It's the Safe Advantage program, which I think is run through our Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission. I think, overall, GNWT has had some problems with our compliance and ratings and have had to pay a number of fines in the past as a result of, I guess, our not very good performance. What kind of assurance can the Minister provide? Or tell us what's happening in terms of the Safe Advantage program. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I think this is the right section. I'm just wondering if our witnesses can tell us what's happening with safe disclosure legislation, which is also known as whistleblower protection. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

I want to thank the Minister for helping me make the case for indexing of income assistance payments. I'm wondering, though, if he could commit to looking at this issue within the next year and bringing that back to the appropriate committee.

Mahsi. We've put one of the Ministers at the end of the row to work today, and I'd like to work with the other Minister opposite at the end of the row. Earlier today I did commend the government for the changes that they've made to income assistance, but I'd like to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment whether income assistance payments were increased or not on April 1, 2016, and why.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I will speak today about some of the least advantaged, and unfortunately, least politically influential people in our society, those on income assistance. First, I want to congratulate the Cabinet on its decision announced in the budget address that income from the Canada Child Benefit, and the Northwest Territories Child Benefit, and spousal support will be excluded in the calculation of income assistance payments. I also applaud the announcement of amendments to the NWT Income Tax Act to enhance the NWT Child Benefit, including different benefit amounts for...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll take the Minister up on his offer and put together some thoughts on this and pass those back to him because I think there are ways that we could ensure that we can maintain confidence in our staffing process by ensuring that we have a fair appeal process. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thanks to the Minister for being so open and transparent.