Don't discriminate against people on income assistance, human rights panel tells N.W.T. gov't

A human rights panel has ordered the Government of the Northwest Territories to pay out $15,000 to three complainants in a 2017 case. It's also ordered the government to "refrain in future from discriminating against income assistant recipients based on stereotypes."

Clara Bates, who relies on income assistance, filed the complaint last year alongside her brother and son, after the territorial government changed the way it provided income assistance.  

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The Department of Education, Culture, and Employment decided in 2013 to give residents vouchers to the community's two stores — the Northern Store and Stanton — instead of cash. 

The complainants argued the change was discriminatory because it was based on the belief that those on income assistance spend their money on things like alcohol and cigarettes. They also said it made them feel "low and depressed."

As laid out in the N.W.T. Human Rights Adjudication Panel decision dated July 5, the territorial government had argued that "the voucher program was implemented as a result of concerns that came directly from the community of Tuktoyaktuk and other communities in the region."

Bates said the change stopped her from buying traditional foods, like geese, caribou, and muktuk, from hunters.

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Government had 'good intentions'

Bates suggested the government should pay each complainant $15,000 for damages to dignity. In the decision, the territorial government argued that it did not believe any damages should be awarded. 

In the N.W.T., damages of this kind can be awarded between $1,500 and $25,000, according to the decision.

"This case falls at the lower end of the spectrum, since the GNWT had good intentions and the complainants could still obtain necessities while they were impacted," the adjudication panel found.

The panel made two orders for the complaint.

First, it ordered the territorial government not to discriminate against those receiving income assistance based on stereotypes. And second, it ordered the territorial government to pay $5,000 to each complainant "for injury to dignity, feelings and self-respect."