SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A government official vowed to put his job on the line to prove his department is taking problems with the delivery of income assistance programs seriously.
Dana Heide, an associate deputy minister with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment (ECE), told a committee of MLAs on Tuesday his department will act on recommendations by the auditor general of Canada on how to fix problems with the program.
"At the end of the day, where does the buck stop? Right here, and if we don't get it done you can fire me," Dana Heide told the Standing Committee on Government Operations on the first day of a two-day review of the auditor general of Canada's report on income assistance programs, which was presented to the legislative assembly on March 7.
Assistant auditor general Ronnie Campbell travelled to Yellowknife for the public meetings. The auditor general's report looked at how well the department delivered four key social programs to residents: the Income Assistance program, the Student Financial Assistance program, the Child Care User Subsidy and the Senior Home Heating Subsidy.
These four programs cost the department $30 million annually.
Of the 65 files examined by the auditing team, 38 did not meet specific requirements set by the department.
"More than half of the files contained a significant deficiency. We're very concerned, and the department should be too," Campbell told the committee, adding this audit speaks to a larger issue.
"The number of errors we found, and the prevalence of these errors, it's systemic."
Campbell pointed to three main areas of improvement: guidance, as much of the information given to client services officers is vague or unclear; training for client services officers, who need to know how to deal with the "complex situations" that can make their job administering these services difficult; and monitoring, because at the time the audit was completed in September 2012, the department had no way to audit how well its programs were being delivered.
A hot topic at the meeting was failures highlighted in the Income Assistance program. Of the 20 Income Assistance files audited, 18 failed to meet key requirements.
Some of these were due to a lack of communication or inconsistent training, "and then there's just your plain and utter non-compliance," said Range Lake MLA Daryl Dolynny.
Shortly after the report was brought to the legislative assembly, Yellowknife resident Miranda Currie went public with her negative experiences when trying to access Income Assistance after a brain injury left her unable to work.
Currie attended the meeting on Wednesday because, "It's something that affects my life, actually, whether these guys are on time with their payments and everything," she told Yellowknifer. "I'm on board with everything the auditor general's report is saying so far, but I want to know what we're going to do about it."
When it came time for ECE officials Heide, deputy minister Gabriela Eggenhofer and director of Income Security, Lois Walbourne, to take the hot seats at the table on Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning, they agreed with all of the auditor general's recommendations and discussed an action plan their department is working on to meet program requirements.
The action plan has yet to be released publicly, but should be available sometime this year, said Heide.
Since reviewing a draft version of the auditor general's report about six months ago, the department has developed all new manuals, created an audit process and a new position for an auditor within the department, and have met with staff to identify what their training needs are, said Heide.
When asked what specific changes clients can expect the next time they approach the double-paned windows that generally separate income assistance applicants from their case workers, Heide said, "Hopefully you will be treated with respect and dignity. Hopefully our worker will gather the appropriate documentation effectively, and you will move out with good service."
For Currie, this is good news, but the proof is in the pudding, so to speak.
Since sharing her story, she has had people come to her shack in the Woodyard and get in touch with her over social media, asking for her help in dealing with their own struggles with income assistance.
"Now, for me, it's sort of like: if, from this brain injury we can move something forward for more than just me, this would be an honour," she said.
