NWT - The number of NWT residents on income assistance has increased by 20 per cent over the past year and the government is trying to figure out why.

Dan Daniels: Number of people using income support in the NWT has increased 20 per cent. - NNSL file photo Minimum wage by province Alberta: $8.80 B.C.: $8.00 Manitoba: $9.00 New Brunswick: $8.25 ($10 by 2011) Newfoundland: $9.50 ($10 by July) NWT: $8.25 ($9 in April, $10 in 2011) Nova Scotia: $8.60 ($9.65 by Oct.) Nunavut: $10.00 Ontario: $9.50 ($10.25 by March) PEI: $8.40 Quebec: $9.00 ($9.50 by May) Saskatchewan: $9.25 Yukon: $8.89 (Each year, this rate increases by an amount corresponding to the annual increase for the preceding year in the Consumer Price Index for the city of Whitehorse)

Deputy Minister Dan Daniels said the Department of Education, Culture and Employment is completing a more detailed analysis of the increased cases this week to help with department planning.

"Not only on a community by community basis, but we want to take a look at different categories of people where the increases might be coming from," he said. "For example, is the increase among young people or is it coming from older people?"

In August 2008, for example, 1,049 NWT residents were on income assistance. By August 2009, that number had jumped to 1,266.

It came to light in the legislative assembly late last month that residents who depend on income assistance were not receiving their cheques on time and that the department was so swamped with cases that some government officials were writing cheques by hand and mailing them out.

"It was primarily due to our own increased caseloads here, where we were running into a few difficulties. It didn't really have anything to do with the new filing system at all," Daniels said Thursday. He added everything is now running "pretty much" as normal in the department, which announced last week it will raise minimum wage in the territory from $8.25 an hour to $10 an hour over the next year. The rate is first set go up to $9 an hour on April 1, 2010 before it's raised another dollar on April 1, 2011, in an effort to lessen the financial burden on employers.

The NWT hasn't increased minimum wage since 2003, though the cost of living here is one of the highest in Canada. The minimum wage in Nunavut, by comparison, is $10 an hour, effective September 2008.

"We've been exploring it for the past couple of years and doing some research on what the levels are in other jurisdictions and certainly there's been some interest from different folks out there who feel that there's a need for an increase," Daniels said.

"We talked to a number of employers this past summer just to get their feel for what they're paying right now and we found that the majority are paying well above the minimum wage, so we anticipate this won't affect the majority of employers." Daniels said the minimum wage increase "might encourage more people to become attached to the workforce." But, he added, "it's about more than the money. We try to make sure that people become aware of other programming supports that might be available to help them move forward in their lives, whether it's literacy programs or education and training programs, or helping people in job searches."