Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Later today I will be tabling information on the gap in household incomes in the Northwest Territories. The information is startling. It shows that the average annual household income of the bottom 20 percent of NWT earners is just $16,000, with the highest 20 percent of earners’ annual household income is $206,000. That is a gap of $189,000, the highest spread between wealthy and poor in all of Canada. The wealthiest 20 percent of NWT families make 13 times as much a year as the poorest 20 percent of families, on average. The disparity is growing.
Recent reports from the Conference Board of Canada and the OECD show our income disparity figures mirror national and international trends. The richest 1 percent of Canadians hold 14 percent of the national wealth. They make hundreds of times as much annually as our poorest citizens, and this 1 percent gained one-third of the new wealth created in the last 22 years, largely during the 10 years of highest economic growth in Canada.
Internationally, the trend is the same. With global economic instability, the potential for social unrest could follow upon income and equities we haven’t seen since the late 1920s. Despite white-hot economic growth in the NWT over the past decade, 20 percent of our households struggle to live on $16,000 a year. This puts the lie to the myths that a rising tide lifts all boats or that a job is a ticket out of poverty.
What can we do? Some known causes suggest obvious actions. Examples include stagnation of minimum wages, decreased unionization, fewer employment benefits, lower welfare payments and the 50 percent slashing of the top marginal tax rate over the past 50 years from 80 percent to 43 percent.
Rather than individual actions, we need a broad, integrated and comprehensive response. As a motion before this Assembly later today will urge, we need an egalitarian society built by strategically helping people out of poverty rather than helping them live in poverty.
Action was promised in the 16th Assembly, with no results. Eighteen Members elected this fall promised to make fighting poverty a top priority. Twenty-six of the territory’s foremost advocacy groups – the Dene Nation has just signed on...
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
Twenty-six of the NWT’s foremost advocacy groups – the Dene Nation has just signed on – and four municipalities have insisted we sit down with businesses, communities, organizations and those living in poverty, to create a strategic multi-faceted approach to help our citizens out of poverty.
I will be asking the Premier questions on his plans for carrying these commitments forward. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
