Julie Green

I am not sure that the students in the social work and teacher education programs are going to find that response very helpful. They were told that their program would be on hold for a year while this took place. Clearly now it is going to be more like two years. What is the Minister going to tell the students and the staff in those affected programs about the future of their program?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I welcome the Minister's statement about the next steps in the foundational review, but I also have some concerns. When the standing committee wrote to the Minister at the end of August, what we said was that we were concerned about the project's strict timeline because the contract, at that point, had not been awarded, so I am wondering how that became advice to delay the project. Thank you.

The Minister has anticipated my next question, but I am going to ask it anyway because it is a little more detailed. In the last budget, as the Minister said, the Anti-Poverty Fund went up to $1 million, but, up to this point, there has been no effort to evaluate the effectiveness of that spending, so I am wondering if the Minister could produce an annual report that once again would come out to coincide with the roundtable. I need to emphasize this very strongly, to evaluate without creating a large burden on the reporting agencies to carry out, so some kind of reporting but that is not...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister responsible for the Anti-Poverty Strategy. As I have frequently pointed out, along with the NGOs, the first step in eliminating poverty is to measure it. We need to identify a set of indicators to measure income and the effects of poverty, such as use of emergency housing, food banks, and so on. Will the Minister commit to begin the formal collection and assembly of this kind of data in partnership with the Bureau of Statistics? Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's time for this government to renew the GNWT Anti-Poverty Action Plan. The two-year plan expired in the last fiscal year, and when it was in currency it provided an important blueprint for addressing the needs of those who live in poverty or who are at risk of poverty. Now we need an updated and comprehensive plan that prioritizes actions to carry us forward in our common goal of reducing poverty.

Mr. Speaker, one of the limitations of the previous Territorial Anti-Poverty Action Plan was that it didn't include a monitoring, reporting, and evaluation...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Section 77(1) of the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act, I wish to advise the House that I have a conflict of interest in Bill 30, Health Statutes Law Amendment Act (Cremation Services). This bill amends the Public Health Act to clarify that the Commissioner may make regulations respecting cremation and crematoria.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not sure that the original announcement cancelling these programs and then later suspending these programs really prepares students and staff for what has become a very long and arduous process.

It is not clear to me, and I would like to ask why this delay happened in the first place. The Minister announced the foundational review in March. The contract was not awarded until September. Why did it take that long? Thank you.

I did not hear the Minister answer my question. I want to be very clear that the committee did not ask for a delay in the foundational review. We realize that the stakes are very high for the students whose programs have been put on hold pending the outcome of this exercise. What, in fact, will the impact of this delay be on them?

Mr. Speaker, I am sure the Minister is aware that a $1 million Anti-Poverty Fund is a start, but will not provide a systemic fix to poverty, so I am wondering, fuelled with the information he is collecting on the outcome of the different kinds of measurements, whether he is in fact willing to look at building on the work of some of the most successful programs through other programs or adjustments to other funding streams outside of the anti-poverty fund. Thank you.

Thank you to the Minister. It is good to hear that there is some work going on in this area. Will the Minister further compile this information into a sort of annual report and release it at the Anti-Poverty Roundtable in November in Norman Wells?