Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Premier. I mentioned in my Member’s statement that I had been holding a Christmas present for him for some time and that I had given that to him today at noon. I thought it was pretty nice too. Now that the Premier has his Christmas present, or that the Legislative Assembly has the Christmas present -- because it is addressed to all of us -- I would like to ask the Premier if he could advise us, and I mean Members and also the representative of the presenters of the present, what he will do with his or our present now that he has it. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for her question and the event that she organized and the hand-off of the Christmas present, which is work by the organizations around the Anti-Poverty Strategy. When this issue first came up prior to Christmas, I became aware of what was being done and at that time asked the folks in the Department of Executive to start to begin to look at how we could try to address this issue. Now, with this package, and as I’ve talked with my Cabinet colleagues, we’re going to officially put it in the system with this information.
As we were at the presentation this afternoon, as it was highlighted, the effort is to be a part of the solution through these organizations and looking at the dollars we have put available as a government over a number of departments. We know that through a number of initiatives through our budget exercise, we’ve put in the area of about $145 million as a government. But through a number of departments and programs, coordination and working together is going to be important as we try to stretch our resources to better serve the people that are in need of these services. I will formally put it in the system, as we say, to the Ministers and start pulling that information together and prepare to open a dialogue with Members and the organizations in seeing how we can better pool our resources to have a better impact on the lives of the people who are in the most need.
Thank you to the Premier for his answer. He mentioned that the government will start a dialogue with these parties. It’s imperative that we have the involvement of parties outside the GNWT. We’re not going to get anywhere without their participation. I know it’s really early within this process, but I wonder if he could give us some idea of how he’s going to involve NGOs and the other organizations that are part of the group that want to develop an anti-poverty strategy.
It is early days and I would say that once we start to gather and the initial work has been done and touching base with departments with this package of information we’ll be able to get the departments to pull something together and prepare to come to Members to say how do we engage the collective in the sense of the body of people and organizations with expertise along with our own. We are a ways away. We need to pull the initial pieces together and go to Members and seek their advice and what are sort of the next steps we can look at taking.
Thanks to the Premier. I know that he’s mentioned that he would come to Members. I’m not so sure that this requires the approval, so to speak, of Members. I think to reach out to NGOs is something that could be done without letting us know, but I don’t know we need to give you the approval to do that. I will be tabling a list of the anti-poverty supporters later on this afternoon, so that will give the government a list to work from.
A number of years ago the government established a Coalition Against Family Violence. In my estimation, it’s been a very successful coalition and the actions that came out of that. I wonder if the Premier could see that the same process that was used to develop the coalition and the Action Plan Against Family Violence, could that cooperation, that coordination, that kind of a process be used to develop this anti-poverty strategy.
I thank the Member for the opportunity to make a decision on my own and move forward with a plan of action. But I would prefer, as has been practiced, to go back to the committee to at least inform them of what we have pulled together and ask for suggestions on where we go. Not necessarily approval, but just presenting the work that is starting to be formed and look at those next steps that can be taken. How do we bring in the expertise out there to help formulate an approach or revised approach in best using our resources? You have my commitment. We will get back to Members with our initial piece of work and looking for the next steps of how we engage the expertise out there. The list that the Member is talking about would help us in looking at those first pieces of how we would look at next steps.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will be short. I want to thank the Premier for his commitment. Again, my tendency is to go towards a definite time. I look forward to the Premier coming to us and then asking for the advice of Members, but when would that be?
Here would be a great opportunity to use that phrase “in the fullness of time.” But, realistically, the fact is that the work has been started at least initially from Executive touching base with departments. Now, with this package, we’ll be able to put a little bit more to it and ask the departments responsible to start putting some energy into this. I will get back to Members after speaking with my Cabinet colleagues as to some time frames. I’ll be pushing them to have a quicker response than the normal and, hopefully, we can get some response back within a month or two with Members to discuss those next steps.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
