Julian Morse

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think that what was being desired and what was being spoken to in this case is hoping that, you know, care can be provided in such a way that people could be kept at home and not necessarily we're not necessarily talking about people who need to be in a bed or, you know, being provided medical care so to speak but sometimes just kind of some social support. I'm wondering if the Minister could kind of speak to that kind of care, keeping people at home, giving people support where they are, where they need it, so that they don't have to be in the hospital or sent south...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, yeah, I would just say to the Minister I hope to see some new programming coming forward to that end to getting people connected with employment.

Mr. Speaker, on a slightly different note, section 24(v) of the income assistance regulations requires people to drain their retirement savings in order to be eligible for income assistance. Is the Minister willing to review these regulations to see if we can achieve the balance of program fairness without forcing people to compromise their longterm future? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And in keeping with the theme of the day, I have some questions on income support.

Mr. Speaker, my first question is considering removal of the productive choice and employment requirements, as we've been talking about a fair bit this afternoon already, how is the department proposing to continue work to reduce dependency on income support? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, and I do I do recognize that was a very general and high level question, but I guess the point I was getting at is that we do seem to have quite a focused plan for dealing with crime on the policing side and was just kind of hoping to hear from the Minister what we're doing on the social side. And a lot of that falls under her department. And to the point I mean, I was asked the question myself the other day and had a difficult time kind of coming up with an answer like are we doing enough? I think if we look outside and look to what Members are saying is going on...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And, really, not to repeat comments made by other Members, but I think, you know, the problem that I'm seeing is I still have constituents who seem confused about what's happening. The department has produced kind of a calculator, but there still seems to be some confusion about kind of what their benefits are going to be. So anything the department can do to kind of improve comms on this would be appreciated. But, you know, I can just say for the record as it currently stands as it's been presented, I'm not in agreement with the changes that are being made. I'll leave it...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's it for questions on this section. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And kind of getting back to some conversations we were having last week, have been kind of similar to the Member for Range Lake jogging my memory. And I do remember we were talking about residential care and the comments that the Member from Yellowknife North making regarding that and the desire to see people see us working towards keeping people in the territory.

I just wanted to note that, you know, at a constituency meeting I had recently, I was talking to a few different members of the public who had come to the meeting to express their hope that something could be...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So if there aren't triggers in terms of the requirements that were previously put, are there going to be any kind of triggers or places where some kind of connection point is created with the department so people are connected with these client navigators who have new time to be engaging with clients? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to support the words shared by my colleagues that we need to take action to reduce dependence on government support. I really appreciate the perspective they bring into this House from their experience living and representing the communities and the frustration they feel when they see people becoming dependent on the government rather than achieving independence and selfreliance.

I also have a bit of experience working with youth in some of our communities in my own role as an instructor of an environmental monitoring training program and can say that...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I made some comments in my opening comments about the various kind of -- the sort of crisis that is being faced at NTHSSA, and I think I don't need to repeat those comments but was hoping to get a response back from the Minister and the department on ideas they are bringing forward to address these kind of issues.