Bob Bromley

The Minister has very correctly depicted this as a cross-departmental dilemma. Clearly focused attention is needed on these conflicting cross-departmental policies that entrap people in poverty, as the Minister has said.

Will the Anti-Poverty Action Plan include funding or dedicated personnel, almost an ombudsman sort of a person, to research and suggest solutions to poverty traps like these and other policy dilemmas as they come up? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would also like to follow up from my earlier Member’s statement with questions to the lead Minister for the Anti-Poverty Strategy, Mr. Abernethy.

As I mentioned in my statement today, my constituents are telling me that our social safety net contains poverty traps. Some of the rules make it very difficult for people to access the help they need.

I’d like to start by asking the Minister, first of all, what is the current status of the Anti-Poverty Strategy Action Plan. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to also recognize Tony Whitford, if he’s still here. I don’t know if Mayor Mark Heyck is still here. I’d also like to recognize – again I can’t see them – Dick and Loretta Abernethy, both residents of Weledeh. Hi up there. Finally, Sophie Clark, a resident of Weledeh and one of our Pages today. Thanks very much for all the service the Pages are providing us. Mahsi.

Thank you, Minister. I am sure we could all agree one wish is to have more money. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The last person I have on my list today is Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Minister. Colleagues, we’re on general comments. Next I have Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I find a lot of my comments are the same as Ms. Bisaro’s. I don’t find the response from the Minister at all helpful. We are raising concerns here and he’s just stating what the budget is.

I think the message here is that we’re not happy with this budget. So going through very quickly here, this is a very unbalanced, disproportionate budget. It’s way over-weighted to highway, Department of Transportation highway projects, and primarily new highway projects.

I’d like to quote the Minister: “The GNWT is facing the difficult challenge of maintaining existing assets...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. I don’t see a coordinator as being what I’m talking about here. Policy analysts are a very specific breed of cat and they have a specific focus and they get into the intricate examples of conflicting policies and weigh out the solutions. So I’m wondering: Has the work to date profiled issues such as these, other than a few examples provided by my colleagues and myself? What mechanism is being contemplated to ensure these policy conundrums are captured and brought forward for resolution so they don’t recur? I don’t think, again, a coordinator is...

Thanks to the Minister. I appreciate the Minister is seeking support or input from the wider community on this and that he’s committed towards moving things forward towards implementation of the action plan.

The poverty traps I mentioned have been discovered by people trying to access the system. Obviously, these constituents are not policy analysts, but their experience highlights the need to research such policy issues and propose solutions. So can the Minister say how the action plan will tackle these needs?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I know this is one of the really important, they are all important, but this one was key in terms of delivering a good quality service to our public that the Auditor General spoke to. I really very much appreciate all the work of this committee on all of these recommendations coming forward, a really good piece of work here.

The thing I hear most frequently from clients and from non-government organizations that often support and assist them in gaining access to government services is the lack of dignity. It is very unusual to find anybody who chooses to be in these...