Bob McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The facts as quoted by my colleague, in fact, are true. I mean, we see quoted in national media that Yellowknife has the highest per capita income in Canada, but they never report on the high cost of living.

There was considerable work done in the 15th Assembly where we looked at how much this government was spending on subsidies to assist people living in the Northwest Territories, and the number that we came to was something in the neighbourhood of $158 million. There was also work undertaken by ECE and Health and Social Services to see what salary range we would have...

When we met the Caucus of the 17th Assembly, we developed the priorities for this Assembly. We identified the priorities which are all part and parcel of an Anti-Poverty Strategy. In our discussion we did not envision legislation for an anti-poverty act, but I guess as we go forward, if that’s something that’s brought forward, we would look at it.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member knows, we’ve been doing a lot of consultation and going throughout the regions and visiting 13 communities, I believe. We also had a survey across the Northwest Territories and we’ve developed a discussion paper which we are now developing into a strategy which will be based on the community consultations that we undertook and the priorities set by this Assembly to develop an Anti-Poverty Strategy. As part of that, my expectation is that there will be a definition of poverty in there.

There will be opportunities to comment on it. We will be briefing committee. We will be providing the discussion paper and a draft strategy to committee. Thank you.

I already responded several times, that we’ve had a very wide period of consultation. In October 2010 there was an anti-poverty workshop held here in Yellowknife. From January to April 2011 we did community-wide consultations in every region. We had 30 focus group sessions in 13 communities. We talked to over 250 people. In addition, we held surveys that anybody in the Northwest Territories that had an interest or view on anti-poverty could submit. I think that we’ve covered the consultation piece quite widely. Thank you.

The broad-based discussion paper is one of the documents, as well as What We Heard through community consultations, and as well as the priorities of this 17th Legislative Assembly; all are information that are being used to help draft a broad Anti-Poverty Strategy for all of the Northwest Territories.

As I indicated in response to a number of questions, we have had in place an advisory committee on poverty. We have an intergovernmental working group. We have held consultations from January to April 2011. We have been to every region in the Northwest Territories. We’ve had 30 focus group sessions in 13 communities and we are looking at a strategy that would apply NWT-wide. We have developed a broad discussion paper that was based on What We Heard in the communities. We are now having a group of deputies that are taking the discussion paper and taking what we heard in the community...

I believe I tried to convey in my previous response that we’ve already done that. We’ve already gone out and consulted throughout every region of the Northwest Territories. We met with over 250 people. We’ve held over 30 focus group sessions in 13 communities. We conducted a territorial-wide survey to get people’s views on poverty. We believe we’ve done the heavy lifting already so that we can get to work on developing an Anti-Poverty Strategy based on the priorities of the 17th Assembly. Thank you.

I’d like to point out that we’re not starting something new. This started in the 16th Assembly. In May of 2010 the Premier of the day committed to developing a discussion paper on anti-poverty. There was an intergovernmental working group set up. In October 2010 there was an anti-poverty workshop set up. In December 2010 we had an advisory group of stakeholders on poverty. We undertook community consultations over a period of January to April 2011. We also briefed standing committee. We did a survey, as I indicated. We had a report on what we heard. We’ve been working and developed a broad...

We’ve already undertaken at least six months of consultations and survey work. We can get a copy of any existing anti-poverty acts and provide it to the Member and we can use it for our benefit as well.