Mr. Speaker, to live in poverty in Canada is to live with insufficient and often poor quality food. It is to sleep in poor quality and/or unaffordable housing, in homeless shelters, or on city streets and parks. It means making difficult and painful decisions on a daily basis involving trade-offs, whether to pay the rent or feed the kids, pay the electric bill or go to the dentist, buy a new bus pass or forego socializing with friends. To live in poverty is also to be at greater risk of poor health, family or neighborhood violence, and a shorter lifespan. It is to be unable to participate fully in one’s community and greater society. It is to suffer great depths of anxiety and emotional pain.
When our government was elected, we set a goal of helping our residents become and stay healthy, educated people free from poverty. Since then, Ministers have stood in this House many times to talk about initiatives that will help us reach that goal. Our Premier and Finance Minister laid the groundwork. Early in our mandate they established a sustainable approach to making our territory prosperous in partnership with other northern governments. Minister Beaulieu has spoken of supports to people with mental health and addictions issues, including the desperate need for prevention and harm reduction. Minister McLeod has introduced a number of programs that address housing needs, especially the new fair and sustainable public housing rent scales and changes to home ownership programs. Minister Lafferty has spoken many times about our government’s support for early childhood development and for comprehensive education programs that get our residents ready to enter the workforce. Minister
Ramsay is leading the development of a socially responsible Economic Development Strategy that will provide all our residents with opportunities and choices. We have made sustainable, vibrant, and safe communities our goal.
Mr. Speaker, all of our goals and initiatives are related. Our government’s entire agenda is an Anti-Poverty Strategy. A strong, diversified economy increases employment opportunities where they are most needed. Those opportunities come from investments in education and early childhood development. All of this work has the goal of reducing and preventing poverty throughout the NWT.
This is, and will always be, a shared effort. Poverty is complex. Although there is a widening gap between those who are prospering and those who are just getting by, poverty is not just about money. It can mean a family does not have enough healthy food. It can mean they have poor quality or unaffordable housing. It always means they have to make difficult decisions about how to make ends meet. People who live in poverty are at greater risk of poor health and violence, and they often aren’t able to participate fully in their communities.
The budget that is before the House is the first step. It includes new investments of approximately $3.4 million in our Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan, in early childhood development, and in helping Northerners capture the benefits associated with exploration in the Sahtu. These are long-term investments, but Members know they start paying off immediately.
As we prepare for the opportunities that will come with devolution, self-government and increasing economic development, we commit to addressing inequalities that keep our people from succeeding in education and the workforce. In partnership with Aboriginal governments, community governments, non-government organizations and others, we are developing a framework that will set out how we will all work together to reduce poverty. This framework will play an influential role in our government’s social agenda and will be the basis for much of our work throughout this Assembly, setting the stage for real gains in the next five to 10 years. It will also include a mechanism to ensure long-term continuity of coordinated efforts to reduce poverty.
There is no place for poverty in the NWT. This is the shared belief of many Northerners as well as the individuals and organizations who came together to build this framework. Over the coming months my Cabinet colleagues and I will return to this House to discuss new investments and new ways to deliver programs to reduce poverty in the North. These investments will be part of an action plan based on the framework and developed with Members. We believe in strong individuals, families and communities sharing the benefits and responsibilities of a unified, environmentally sustainable and prosperous Northwest Territories. I look forward to talking to Members about ways to achieve this shared vision. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. McLeod.
