Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this week I had the privilege of attending the Feeding Change supper at the Salvation Army. More than 50 individuals, representatives of low income residents and social justice groups and agencies, attended to discuss poverty issues and solutions and share experience and learn about the anti-poverty campaign, Dignity for All.
The Dignity for All campaign is a national movement partnering 14 social justice organizations and endorsed by 175 organizations and increasing numbers of politicians at all levels nationwide. The goals are the creation of a federal plan that complements provincial/territorial plans to eliminate poverty, creation of a federal act for poverty elimination, and federal investment for social wellness for all Canadians.
Confrontation of poverty is based on a fundamental assumption. All citizens have the right to a standard of living adequate to the health and well-being of their families and themselves.
The need for coordinated government action recognizes that the prosperity of all citizens can’t increase when governments spend about $100 billion per year fighting the effects of poverty, money which might be better spent addressing the issue head on; a preferred approach, I believe, of our government.
Regionally, Quebec, Newfoundland, Ontario, Nova Scotia and Manitoba have all created anti-poverty strategies with fixed program budgets, comprehensive implementation plans and clear targets for evaluating progress. New Brunswick and Yukon are now working on theirs and community groups in Alberta, B.C. and Saskatchewan are all calling for their provinces to establish anti-poverty strategies.
Mr. Speaker, we have also been called upon to act, to confront social conditions and inequities that are amongst the worst in Canada. Alternatives North’s report in 2006, Poverty, A Whispered Word, and their 2009 review of GNWT poverty reduction policies and programs calls upon this government to confront poverty with a clear, comprehensive and unified strategy. Currently we do not even have an official definition of poverty. While we have many programs dealing with the symptoms and results of poverty or housing and homelessness, addictions and mental illness, criminal justice in corrections, illiteracy and social assistance, we have no coordinated plan of attack. We can’t cure the results without confronting the problem as a whole.
Despite our amazing economic growth…
Mr. Bromley, your time for your Member’s statement has expired.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted.
Thank you, colleagues. Despite our amazing economic growth over the past decade, our poverty issues remain flat-lined or worse now. Evidence clearly shows that economic growth alone does not resolve poverty. Over the next week, I will be asking Ministers questions on this issue. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
