Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the lead Minister on the Anti-Poverty Strategy, Mr. Abernethy, and I want to note that there are good things happening on the Anti-Poverty Strategy development. I’m told by my people, constituents and acquaintances, that good collaborative basis has been established in carrying the work forward. I’m also encouraged that there’s at least one roundtable, maybe a couple established to get together and discuss this as it develops.
The one thing that I am concerned about is that there is an inexplicable attachment to a December 2012 deadline. A pretty tight time frame, but seemingly to be achieved at almost any cost. Now, there’s plenty of time for Mr. Abernethy to consider business plans in September, so there’s lots of time for planning there. Given that perhaps another month or two would add to the value of it, can the Minister explain why there is such a tight adherence to this bizarre deadline for an integrative process that has been set and whether or not he will commit to ensuring the process is given the time needed, regardless of the end of the calendar year?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. I just want to remind Ministers and Members that preamble on your answers and your questions, shorten them up a little bit. I still have four more Members to go and we have 12 minutes. Fourteen minutes. Thank you. Lead Minister responsible for the Anti-Poverty Strategy, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is a lot of work being done on the Anti-Poverty Strategy. We are happy with the progress that has been done to date and we are looking forward to continue working with committee and the public on the completion of an Anti-Poverty Strategy.
Ultimately what we want is the right Anti-Poverty Strategy as opposed to right now. We think we can get it done by the end of the calendar year but we are open to input from those involved, including the committee and Members, and if it doesn’t look like we’re going to have the right policy at the end of the calendar year, we’re open to further discussion.
I appreciate the Minister’s flexibility there. It sounds good. Even the best Anti-Poverty Strategy could fail to produce strong results without concrete action to carry it out.
Because the solutions to poverty lie at the community level, we will need to work out our partnerships, roles and programs to ensure success. As the lead Minister begins the work to create an Anti-Poverty Strategy, recognizing that he’s already drawing upon work done as he mentioned and so on, will he also commit to creating an implementation and action plan as an integral part of that strategy?
The first part is obviously to get the framework done and the strategy done. We will be working with our partners. This has to be done with partners. For anti-poverty to be successful, we do need to work with organizations and agencies outside of government. Once we have the framework, then we will be able to have the discussions on next steps, which would include action plans. Those action plans will involve actions from individuals outside of government, so we will have to work with them to come up with that.
Thanks for the Minister’s remarks there. Nunavut has obviously been very successful in developing an Anti-Poverty Strategy thanks to their approach of community participation. One big lesson was that community events such as the community-based review of a draft plan must be carried out with the support of locally hired conveners.
As plans are put in place to create the draft strategy and take it out for community review and NGO review, will the Minister assure us that wherever possible community members will be hired to help carry out the community participation?
Right from the beginning when the Premier announced this, he indicated that this would be a collaborative process and that’s the model that we’re following. We have engaged a large working group, which consists of a significant number of NGOs, Aboriginal governments and industry, and we will continue to engage that. That group has identified a steering committee which is chaired by the Government of the Northwest Territories but includes Aboriginal representation, NGO representations, as well, and this is one that I’m really excited about, an individual who has actually lived in poverty and is contributing first-hand knowledge. That group will be steering everything. There will be a meeting in Hay River in late June to bring the working group together to start looking at everything that’s been pulled together to date, look at other jurisdictions that have done things, like Nunavut, Manitoba and Newfoundland, where positive work has been done, and to engage any other stakeholders that might be interested. Then there will be a validation project after that.
As we move forward we are collaborating with people. We will be bringing people in from communities. It’s not just Yellowknife. It’s not just government. It’s the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks again to the Minister. I’m assuming that that will include hiring local people to help with those local meetings.
The other aspect of this, of course, is that this is a very cross-departmental approach, and the Minister is leading this cross-departmental approach. Ultimately, the delivery of the program will depend on our public service across departments, again, delivering it. This is stepping out from the normal course of events. It will require an unusual degree of cooperation. What is the Minister doing to ensure that those mechanisms are in place and that our public service is able to work effectively across departments to deliver this?
We recognize that although this needs to be beyond just government, there is going to be some government responsibility and action required at some point. We have pulled together a committee of the deputies of the social programs departments who will be working on this file on behalf of government. But also, I happen to be the chair of the Social Envelope Committee which consists of the responsible Ministers and we are talking about this, monitoring the progress and providing direction with support of committee and committee’s input as well. We are working across departments as well.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Mr. Menicoche.
