How can the department share povertyrelated health information with other GNWT departments and other Ministers to improve the whole government's approach to eliminating poverty?

Marci, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services on my Member's statement. When it comes to NWT's health performance, we publicly measure things like diabetes, immunization, school readiness, smoking, obesity, but we don't track poverty. My first question for the Minister is, pillar two of the action plan to reduce and eliminate poverty in NWT is healthy living and reaching our potential. Can the Minister expand on some of the department's achievements in this area during the 18th Assembly, and how these relate directly to poverty and poverty's...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Confronting poverty can feel like a daunting chicken-and-egg problem. What do we tackle first? Are our people poor because they do not have jobs, or are they unemployed because they are poor? Are people poor because they are unhealthy, or vice versa?

The Department of Justice recently piloted an integrated case management project where different departments worked together to better serve clients. I wonder if we couldn't pilot something similar in health with a poverty focus, with expertise from Health, Education, even ITI, for traditional knowledge and economic know-how...

Mr. Speaker, your committee has been considering Tabled Document 261-18(2), Northwest Territories Main Estimates 2017-2018 and we would like to report progress. Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of the Committee of the Whole be concurred with. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I move that we report progress. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

---Carried

No one from Aurora College with their full autonomy is here to answer questions on why they are doing cuts, so I ask the Minister. Because the process is a longer process and we were looking at it last year, and we are looking at 2020 as to when the TEP program would end. That's not even in this government. Although they have autonomy, my understanding is that there would be some sort of a strategic plan in place. Prior to finalizing these decisions, if the strategic plan is completed by the college and there's some indication that this program could be saved, would the department work with...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement, I spoke about the Department of Justice doing an integrated case management approach that they have completed recently. I was wondering if the Minister could tell me: what does the Minister think about piloting an integrated case management approach to poverty and health in our small communities, maybe to start with, on the pilot? Thank you.

I hope the Minister hasn't answered all my questions with the first response.

Laughter

Thank you. How does an understanding of poverty as a health determinant currently factor into the department's policies and planning?

Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to move to item 11 on the orders of the day, replies to Budget Address. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Unanimous consent granted

Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to expand on something I raised in my reply to the Budget Address last week. I reminded the House that: "People with low incomes and no jobs have a tendency to have poorer health. That is simply a fact -- not just here, but all over the world."

So our response to poverty doesn't only need social interventions like education programs or housing assistance and economic interventions like job creation. We also need health interventions. Poverty is a thief of dreams and opportunities, but it is also a thief of health, the socalled "life expectancy gap"...