Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Forty years ago Canada initially started its fight against poverty with the founding of the National Poverty Foundation, now called Canada Without Poverty. Forty years ago a special senate committee on poverty published a report, a report which opened with the words, “Poverty is the great social issue of our time. Unless we act now, nationally, in a new and purposeful way, five million Canadians will continue to find life a bleak, bitter and never-ending struggle for survival.”
We haven’t made much progress on poverty as a country in the last 40 years, Mr. Speaker, and the NWT has contributed to that lack of progress. To date we are one of seven jurisdictions in Canada without a comprehensive Anti-Poverty Strategy. We started to make progress, Mr. Speaker. A motion was passed in this House February 11, 2010, calling for the GNWT to develop an Anti-Poverty Strategy and a definition of poverty. As a result of that motion, the NWT Legislature was lauded by several national anti-poverty organizations. On May 19 last year, the Premier made a statement in the House in which he announced the formation of an anti-poverty working group, a group which, unfortunately, did not include any non-government people.
But in early October of last year, when there was no evidence of any concrete action on the part of this government, an anti-poverty alliance of 21 organizations with some support from this government, held an anti-poverty workshop. Eighty-one participants from throughout the NWT met for two days to discuss the meaning of and solutions for poverty. The result of that workshop was a very thorough and comprehensive report. It was distributed to participants and the government in early December 2010.
This report, Mr. Speaker, should be the basis for further work on an Anti-Poverty Strategy. It should be accepted as a starting point for the work the GNWT needs to do. We should not redo work already done. But I recently learned that the GNWT working group composed only of bureaucrats, no non-government representatives, is planning a round of community consultations with a goal of a discussion paper by the end of March this year, and we are preparing to spend $35,000 to do it. In my view, it will be a wasted $35,000. Mr. Speaker, the money would be much better spent acting on the No Place for Poverty report’s recommendations.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
Mr. Speaker, the consultation was done last fall by a group of 81 diverse representatives, 12 percent or so of whom were GNWT staff. Why are we consulting again and why the very short time frame? It seems as though, once again, the government is not listening to its citizens, that it is forging ahead without consideration for the input of our non-government partners. I will have questions for the Premier at a later time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
