Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about growing up in Tulita – at that time Fort Norman – as a young boy and what we had to do to support each other. I guess my question is probably to the Premier.
We didn’t know what poor was until we started to have some measurement of what other people had that we didn’t have. We supported each other. I want to ask the Premier if this government is working on a definition of poverty for the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
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 are various interpretations of the definition of poverty. There are forums on how to tackle poverty in the Northwest Territories. I want to ask the Premier, in his work that is before him with the anti-poverty organizations and communities, does he have an indication as to when a strategy will be completed that will have further discussions with Members from this side?
Since the coalition of 14 groups presented a number of documents to the previous Premier in the 16th Assembly, which was in December 2009, there has been considerable work undertaken in this area. It is our expectation that we will have this by the middle of 2012.
I look forward to the report some time in 2012. As part of the report, has there been any type of discussion on any upcoming legislation that would support the strategy for the anti-poverty for the North?
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. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m very hopeful in hearing the Minister’s words that if there is some interest or some need that we need to look at some legislation to support the Anti-Poverty Strategy initiatives, that we could have a look at it and, of course, that will support the goals of the Caucus priorities to see where we need to move away from some of the issues that are brought forward. I want to ask the Premier if he would put out a call or discussion paper or something that would now begin to bring in the key people to start working on this Anti-Poverty Strategy for some finality within the life of this government.
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.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
