Statements in Debates
An anti-poverty coordinator has been hired with an effective date of October 21, 2013. This individual coordinates territorial action plans, provides advice and recommendations to the GNWT on any ongoing initiatives that support the priorities in the frameworks, and identify areas for collaboration actions to advance the priorities of the framework among all of our partners, including GNWT departments and NGOs. This position will also review annual results of the GNWT partner actions and complete results reports and report progress on broad social indicators. So the answer is yes.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The framework was released earlier this calendar year, and the government and Cabinet have been working on an action plan to respond to that framework. We have shared that draft with committee and we are working on the committee’s responses to it to improve that plan as we move forward.
In the meantime, we’ve funded the No Place for Poverty Coalition to have a roundtable of their own to start working on individual responses to the report so we can all come together in November. November 28th and 29th are the dates that have been confirmed for our territorial group to...
It’s a title. The coordinator is a title. This individual will be reviewing policies across departments that are coming under this Anti-Poverty Action Plan and making sure that they’re moving forward. The larger responsibility, obviously, belongs to the individual Ministers and the Social Envelope Committee of Ministers to make sure that departments are working together, and each department has their own policy unit who can do analysis. So this coordinator will play an important role in analyzing and making recommendations on where these barriers tend to, or may, exist. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, our government is committed to this Assembly’s goal of helping our residents become and stay healthy, educated people free from poverty. A strong territory needs a strong society. All residents of the NWT should have the chance to enjoy the benefits of living in a prosperous, well-governed territory and to participate fully in a healthy, just society.
This is why the Premier committed last year to the development of an Anti-Poverty Strategy. At the appropriate time today, I will table the Strategic Framework towards the Elimination of Poverty in the NWT. This framework has been...
We have been approached by some communities who have an interest. We’ve been approached by some organizations that have an interest. It’s not currently in our legislative agenda, but it is something that we are…(inaudible)…and looking at. I can’t say for sure whether or not we will actually see it come forward in the life of this Assembly, but I can commit that it is something that the department is looking at and will continue to look at. We do have in front of us, now that we have passed the motion on devolution, a pretty heavy legislative agenda. We’ve got a number of things outside of...
The answer is yes. The program is in a pilot phase. It had its original delivery in November 2010, and we were fortunate enough to get the one member here in the Northwest Territories in Hay River. The RCMP is doing a second intake, which is intended to happen this September. We have, I think, a number of applications that have come in for the second troop. We have two seats, and we have applications from Fort McPherson, Fort Simpson, Behchoko, Ulukhaktok, Sachs Harbour, Hay River, Inuvik, Gameti and Yellowknife. We know at least two of these individuals will be going forward for this program...
I can’t remember the exact schedule, but I believe that we are coming together as Members in August, and that’s going to be our opportunity to review the action plan. The symposium would be after we as an Assembly review the action plan, so later in the fall.
Mr. Speaker, we don’t have money to provide to individual organizations so that they can provide a response to the framework. But in the budget statement earlier in the year, there was reference for the fact that there was money being set aside to deal with the different frameworks and strategies that are going to be coming out, and there will be money in that to address poverty initiatives and issues once the extra plan is done. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, the process is that it will be reviewed. It will be identified how many pages are required to meet the Member’s request. It will identify the cost. The letter will indicate there is a cost. The Member can certainly ask us to waive the fee. Frankly, I’m interested in helping the Member obtain this information, so we will likely waive the fee, but we have to go through an appropriate process. We have to go through the legal process. I will do that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, as I indicated yesterday, we’ve had one application for this information. It was from a private citizen sent from his private home, with no reference at all that he was working on behalf of the MLA. The staff who actually processed the request would have had no idea that the Member was actually the one forwarding this request.
I would love to provide the contract to the Member. I would love to do it in open and in public. The problem is, there is a law. I can’t break the law. I would like to work with the Member. I would like to sit down with the Member and identify what exactly he...