News Releases
Government Home Search Sitemap Contact Us  


March 13, 1997
(Social Services)


The following statement was issued today by Joan Marie Aylward, Minister of Social Services. It was also read in the House of Assembly:

Today offers me the first opportunity in this House, to share with my colleagues, information about the National Child Benefit.

The NCB is a national program, that has the agreement in principle of the federal government and all provinces and territories (except Quebec). The parameters of the program have all been developed and agreed upon collaboratively.

The $0.6 billion federal investment in the NCB recently announced in the federal Budget is viewed by this province, and all provinces/territories, as a beginning downpayment on a long term plan.

The primary goals of the NCB are to begin to address child poverty, with particular emphasis on promoting attachment to the workforce, resulting in fewer families having to rely on social assistance. In developing the NCB, all provinces and territories recognized that there are significant work disincentives in our social assistance programs, that make it very difficult for some families to re-enter the workforce. At the same time, some low income, employed families, have fewer benefits/services than families on social assistance. Some of the issues that contribute to this include the fact that social assistance is based on family size and living arrangements, while wages are not; social assistance benefits decline rapidly once a family begins working; and there is a loss of supplementary benefits such as drugs, vision care, municipal tax payments etc. Social assistance is designed to meet basic needs and so must include these types of benefits, but there are unintended consequences.

The National Child Benefit, by design, will assist families on social assistance to make the transition to work, by addressing these disadvantages and, concurrently raise incomes for low income employed families.

Although the precise details of how the NCB will work have yet to be finalized the general design features have been agreed upon. Both the federal and provincial/territorial governments have a specific role in the NCB. The federal role is based on an offer to begin assuming some of the costs of provincial social assistance for children. In return, provinces and territories must agree to reinvest the provincial monies freed-up by this approach in complementary programs and services for low income families and their children.

These are the basic premises which explain the design of the NCB. The two parts of the NCB will be the federal Child Tax Benefit and complementary provincial programs. The CTB will increase in 1998. Concurrently, in all provinces, provincial social assistance payments (the portion related to children) will be decreased, by an equivalent amount. The income of social assistance families will not be affected, while low income, employed families will experience an increase in their income. Additional programs and services will be funded by the provinces/territories aimed at supporting low income families, including social assistance families.

The opportunity for this province to identify monies for programs and services to support families and their children is a very exciting aspect of the NCB. I reiterate that the monies cannot be spent on roads, nor on buildings, nor on other capital construction. A Federal - Provincial Framework Agreement is currently under discussion to guide provincial reinvestments.

A range of program/service options must be developed and costed for our government's consideration. Program examples, used during our NCB discussions, include a provincial child tax benefit or top-up to the National Child Benefit; an earned income tax credit; an extension of in- kind benefits (drugs; vision care etc.); and children's services, such as child care. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list, as no decisions have been made. We will be the first to admit that we need to improve our support programs for families and children. What constitutes the best approach for this province will have to be carefully considered, but our desire to emphasize prevention and early intervention has been previously noted.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to conclude by restating the many positive aspects of the National Child Benefit. The program will begin to address some of the disincentives that exist for low income families pursuing employment by providing additional income benefits and services. Social assistance families will not receive any less money and will have their NCB benefits to count on when they move into the workforce. Lastly, this province, for the first time in many years, will have a significant amount of monies to reinvest in improving programs and services for these families with children. For these reasons, this province made the decision to give approval in principle to the program and to continue with further discussions. We must work together in partnership with the federal government and the other provinces and territories to ensure that the NCB is a permanent and sustained program which will help our children for years to come.

1997 03 13 4:05 p.m.

SearchHomeBack to GovernmentContact Us


All material copyright the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. No unauthorized copying or redeployment permitted. The Government assumes no responsibility for the accuracy of any material deployed on an unauthorized server.
Disclaimer/Copyright/Privacy Statement