R.J. Simpson

Thank you, Madam Chair. There was a lot in that eight minutes there, so I will respond to what I can. The Northern Distance Learning, the Member mentioned evaluations. We just had an Office of the Auditor General of Canada report that evaluated that program; they said it is great. We just had our five-year report on ERI; there are so many acronyms, I can never recall the name when I need to, but that showed success. I have testimonials from students, so that program is doing well. We are keeping an eye on it, and it is one of the bright spots when it comes to education.

The Member said we are...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The university, as I see it, will be stretched across the entire territory, and I have a vision of it being in 33 communities. We do not need buildings physically right next to each other to call it a campus. Everywhere the university has a presence is part of that university. The model of a main campus is an outdated model. It is not something that I am focusing on in this Assembly. I was just down in Smith. They have a beautiful campus down there. It is huge. We need to fill it up. We have a campus here that needs some work, so we are going to have to do something...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I will go back to the Member's first question. We don't have big asks out to the federal government right now, because we haven't done the infrastructure assessment. We have a good idea of what we might need, but you need better than an idea before you go asking for money. The work to determine what infrastructure we are going to need will be done later this year.

The second question that you just asked was about timelines. As I have said before, we are looking at 2022 for a return to a board of governors. The senate would be some time thereafter, and what that senate...

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order under Rule 24 (h), making allegations against another Member, a House Officer, a witness, or a member of the public; (i) imputes false or hidden motives to another Member; (j) charges another Member with uttering a deliberate falsehood; and/or (k) uses abusive or insulting language of a nature likely to create disorder. I have waited until today to raise this point of order because I wanted to review Hansard.

Yesterday, during Members' Statements, the Member for Monfwi said while speaking of the Honourable Premier, and I quote from page 14 of the unedited...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize Mr. Denny Rodgers, the administrator for Aurora College. He is doing a fine job filling in for the board and keeping us all accountable. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The "Develop new mentorship programs to support emerging entrepreneurs" -- sorry, are we talking about the mentorship program or the apprentice? Oh, sorry, that's my mistake. The mentorship program is with ITI. You were right all along, Premier.

There is a distinction between income security programs and Income Assistance programs, and I believe, from earlier conversations with the Member, he wants to know about the Income Assistance program in particular. We have one Income Assistance program, and that program provides financial assistance to residents to assist with their basic and enhanced needs, which include shelter, food, utilities, clothing, childcare, as well as allowances for persons with permanent disabilities, or seniors.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The budgeted amount for the Income Assistance program in 2019-2020 was $32 million. That being said, it's difficult to always estimate exactly how much we'll need, so there have been overruns of about $2 or $3 million every year, so say maybe $35 million would be spent in 2018-2019. Of that, about $6.5 million is for Income Security Program support. The other $27 or $28 million or so goes directly to clients. I'd also like to mention that we also have additional income security programs, such as the Senior Home Heating Subsidy, that also provides some income security...

We have the one program, and not all of the clients have to report monthly. If a client has an income that is steady and doesn't change month to month, or year to year, even, they can be put on a payroll system so that reporting can happen every three months, six months, or 12 months, depending on how stable their income is. While most clients have to report monthly on income, a number of clients don't. Thank you.

That's correct. That $32 million is the budgeted amount. It's likely a couple of million dollars higher in actual payments.