Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is no one Minister responsible for addressing poverty, which may explain the lack of a focus and strategic effort on the issue, so I don’t know who to direct this to. Perhaps the deputy minister or the Minister of Health and Social Services; Deputy Premier, excuse me.
The extreme pattern in distribution of incomes in the Northwest Territories presents some challenges, and certainly, given our economic status in Canada and the Northwest Territories, the numbers of children and families in Canada and the NWT that are in poverty is nothing short of scandalous. What is the Minister’s view on the need for a comprehensive across-government plan to attack poverty similar to those being adopted by progressive governments across the country? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Deputy Premier, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That type of fundamental policy debate I think is always good for any government. We spend now 65 cents of every dollar on social programs; we invest a tremendous amount of time and effort in a host of program areas from housing to education, income support, health to assist in those kinds of areas. We have a focus on cost of living to communities. So we would be interested in that type of a broad policy discussion. Thank you.
Thank you for the comments, Deputy Premier. I think certainly those comments reflect where many of us are. Given that a well thought out and implemented strategy with ongoing evaluation is demonstrably more effective than independent reactive policies, such as we put in place now -- and we have put a lot in place, I’m the first to admit that -- what action is this government willing to take to now move to the next level of developing a comprehensive strategic plan to tackle the issue? Thank you.
We, as a 16th Assembly, laid out some very fundamental, basic and laudable principles to address some of those issues. If there is an interest and need to look at that and how do we reconfigure some of our program areas, and if we have to coordinate differently, then I think there would be an opportunity and need for some further discussion with the Members, maybe the Social Programs committee, to get a better sense of how we could collectively look at how we’re going to possibly readjust. Thank you.
Again, I appreciate those remarks from the Deputy Premier. I know the members of Social Programs are listening closely today and I suspect there is, indeed, interest and need.
As I’ve mentioned, most governments across Canada are now taking this action, in recognition of the gains to be had. In fact, the federal government has announced a deficit of more than $50 billion owing to its effort to get Canada out of recession, but, meanwhile, one in five Canadian families, one in nine children, live in permanent economic recession. What is the Minister’s view on the need for a national anti-poverty plan and the legislation, and will he push the federal government to make this a priority? Thank you.
That may be a step that we would want to consider first, though I would suggest we have some discussion as a Legislature to see what our thinking is and have our own plan so that when we stand up to the federal government to ask them to do something, we know clearly what we’re doing back home and how we think that should be better reflected on the national stage. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Your final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Once again, I appreciate those comments. I suppose the last question, really, is, is there a time frame -- given that we’re slightly over halfway through our term here, and I’d like to see some good progress here, I know many of us would and it sounds like the Deputy Premier as well -- that we can expect for this initiative to come from Cabinet or does he see Social Programs leading that effort? Thank you.
The Member has raised the issue in this House and, as a suggestion, I believe there is opportunity for us to collaborate on this. The issue is going to be just to arrange the time. If there is an interest signified to us that the Social Programs committee wants to have a thorough discussion on this, then we would be happy to comply with that request and just work on the scheduling, which is a challenge in the normal course of events. But I think if there’s an interest, we have about 18 months, by my estimation, of time left where we could actually do substantive work. So we don’t have a lot of time left in the life of the 16th Assembly given all our other multitude of priorities. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
