R.J. Simpson

Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Caroline Cochrane will be absent from the House for remainder of the week to attend the First Ministers' meeting in Ottawa, Ontario. Also, the Honourable Katrina Nokleby and Honourable Diane Thom will be absent due to personal matters. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I'm always happy to sit down with Members and have these discussions. In terms of universal childcare in Fort Smith, it's a difficult conversation to have, to create a pilot program. When we know full well that we can't afford to expand that pilot program to the rest of the territory, we're creating a real inequity. However, there are options and there is plenty of money available to assist Fort Smith, whether it's the college, whether it's the community, or an organization, to develop the childcare space. We have someone in Fort Smith who is there to help do those kinds of things, someone who...

The Member has brought this issue to my attention, and the department is going to look into what's happening in the Beaufort-Delta, follow up there, and find out where this information's coming from. A lot of this information is publicly available. I can have it sent to the Member, but there is a plain language handbook online, and there is actually the policy manual used in the offices available online, as well, that has the legislation in there, and the description of how that legislation is interpreted. I can share all of that for the Members because I know, as a Regular Member, especially...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can confirm that there is not a $600 cap for rent payable for Income Assistance clients. There was a cap that was changed back in April of 2018. I think, at that time, the cap for single individuals was $900, but that is long since gone. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

That is something that is supposed to happen, and I will follow up and make sure that that is happening. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

If a client is eligible for Income Assistance, then they are eligible for the rent and other utilities. It's not a commitment I need to make; it's something that's in the legislation currently.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier, the Member referenced the ATIPP legislation that requires a notice of appeal and appeal rights. The Social Assistance Act Income Assistance Appeals Regulations also contain a provision. It's Section 4(1), I believe, so that is mandated that that has to be done. That is done. I have a copy here of the notice of refusal, which clearly indicates that there are appeal rights. The handbook the Member references, I believe there is an updated policy manual. It's February 2020, and I checked that today, and that does make that reference, although the plain-language...

As part of the apprenticeship or ATOC strategy, we've already committed to that, and we're working on that. We hope to launch the program later this year, and it's going to be similar to the ones in Alberta and Nova Scotia, and it's going to be focused on getting more women in trades. There are other partners in the territory, as well; Skills Canada NWT has launched a program aimed at girls in middle school to help them start getting interested in the trades, as well. There are a lot of people who we could be talking to about this. Five percent of the registered apprentices are women. We're...

I wish I could have more positive answers here for the Member, but the fact is we are not considering this. The work that it would take to actually look into this and do the research is not doable, given what we have been mandated to do by this Assembly. Successive governments over the past number of decades have gone through cuts. The people to get cut are the policy people. We are pretty thin on policy positions. It is tough to do a lot of the work that we want to do. I am not even sure how we are going to do the things that we are mandated to do and that this Assembly is asking of us. To...

First, I just want to address the Member's comments. If any Member is aware of incidents where we are not living up to our standards, please let me know. We have a system in place within the actual offices, but I want to work toward a territory-wide tracking system so that we can identify these types of concerns and move to improve them. In terms of indexing, Income Assistance does pay the actual cost of shelter, of utilities, and of heating fuel, so, in that sense, it is indexed. However, at this time, I can't commit to indexing all of the benefits. We look at our mandate, and ECE has a lot...