Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement with questions for the Minister of the social envelope today, Minister Abernethy. The Minister has been working hard on an Anti-Poverty Strategy and more recently an Anti-Poverty Action Plan. The strategy and plan are based around five pillars.
Could the Minister explain which pillar addresses the poverty traps that are built into our income security programs that I’ve been talking about for the last three days? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have the Member’s comments and I appreciate his perspective. I agree that we need to do more to support the individuals, to break down the barriers to keep them out of poverty. We do have five pillars: children and family support, healthy living and reaching our potential, safe and affordable housing, sustainable communities and integration of services. I think all of these combined start addressing the issues. Maybe not to the degree the Member would like to see. Clearly, some more work is necessary and I’m happy to work with the other Ministers on the Social Envelope Committee to try and break down some of these barriers to benefit all of our residents and keep them out of that poverty trap that the Member continues to refer to. Thank you.
I appreciate the Minister’s openness here. I know the Minister has stated that he’s committed to eradicating poverty and I believe him and fully support this goal. But I’d like to know, how will we know we have reached that goal? The income support system traps people in an income zone that does not even provide people enough to eat.
Will the Anti-Poverty Action Plan develop a definition of a poverty line or perhaps a poverty zone, income zone, that will allow us to know what we are aiming for? Mahsi.
Thank you. I’ve had that discussion, that exact discussion with people all over the Northwest Territories, including on Cabinet and Members themselves and members of our original action team that put together the framework. I’ll have that discussion with the group that’s actually working on the territorial action plan, as well, but the feedback I get on a regular basis is how do you truly define poverty, and I hear that that’s what the Member is asking us to do, but many individuals who might fall under what one person might consider a poverty line don’t feel like they’re living in poverty. It’s about an ability to live life to its fullest, depending on the expectations of the individual.
So it may be really complicated to come up with that true definition. If the Member has something in mind, I’d love to hear it. Thank you.
Thank you. I think there are a lot of people out there that could make suggestions that are caught in these poverty traps, but I’ll take the Minister’s offer and work with him on that.
I know the Minister and I have the same goal here, so I hope he takes these points as constructive and friendly suggestions.
Would the Minister commit to including the six recommendations I made this morning on income support in the anti-poverty work that he is doing? Mahsi.
I have a copy of the statements that the Member made today and I’m happy to take it to the Social Envelope Committee of Cabinet to have some further discussions. I’ll also share it with the working group that we have working on the territorial action plan and we’ll continue to have those discussions. I’m not committing to necessarily doing these things, but I think it’s important to have the discussion and finding a way to get to the same goal that the Member and I share. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. I don’t claim to have all the answers. A critical look is more than fair.
This morning the Minister was on the radio talking about child protection with the greatest source factor being neglect. Does the Minister share my assessment that child protection issues and many of social, health and corrections issues are actually symptoms of families living in poverty, and investing in poverty reduction will address this underlying cause saving us money in the long term?
The Member and I were both on the review of the Child and Family Services Committee in the 16th Assembly, and that was one of the clear recommendations, and we believe that. I still believe that is one of the key findings of that review that we did and is one of the reasons that I’ve worked hard on the Anti-Poverty Action Plan and the Anti-Poverty Framework. I continue to champion for the territorial development of a territorial action plan. The answer is yes, I think we can do better in that area. This morning I talked about neglect on the radio and that we need to move forward with some fundamental change on how we’re providing supports to families to avoid having children apprehended.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
