Marci, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services on my Member's statement. When it comes to NWT's health performance, we publicly measure things like diabetes, immunization, school readiness, smoking, obesity, but we don't track poverty. My first question for the Minister is, pillar two of the action plan to reduce and eliminate poverty in NWT is healthy living and reaching our potential. Can the Minister expand on some of the department's achievements in this area during the 18th Assembly, and how these relate directly to poverty and poverty's health impact? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, addressing poverty, as the Member is aware, certainly is the responsibility of all departments, all boards and agencies, as well as NGOs and individuals themselves. The Department of Health and Social Services can do things to help individuals combat poverty here in the Northwest Territories. There's a large list, but I'll just touch on a couple of the things that we're doing.
Throughout the Northwest Territories, we've been holding community health fairs to help people understand the types of things we all need to be doing, making healthy choices to support healthy living, which ultimately can support them in their fight against poverty.
There has also been a significant amount of federal dollars that have flowed through the Department of Health and Social Services to the individual communities throughout the Northwest Territories to support community wellness, and different activities that are being undertaken by the different communities themselves, community-driven, to help address issues in the communities. Often, poverty is on that list.
Mr. Speaker, in this budget, this government has made commitments through the Department of Health and Social Services to help combat things around poverty, such as putting in a sobering centre here in the Northwest Territories. It's not just the Department of Health and Social Services, as I've said. This government is committing $3 million this year and ongoing to support small business opportunities in communities. JK is fully funded and will be fully funded as of September. This is supporting poverty reduction in the Northwest Territories. We have $22 million, up $2 million this year, being available in income support to help address poverty in the Northwest Territories, but I do take the Member's point on impacts on health, and we take those very seriously. We do have a territorial action plan that we refer to on a regular basis and, as we're making decisions on programs, we think about the impacts they will have on our residents to help reduce things like poverty. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I hope the Minister hasn't answered all my questions with the first response.
Laughter
Thank you. How does an understanding of poverty as a health determinant currently factor into the department's policies and planning?
The Member had a very comprehensive Member's statement today which I think addressed many of the issues that are being faced by residents across the Northwest Territories, and I appreciate the content of that statement.
Poverty, as I think the Member has clearly articulated, is a very complex issue with many contributing factors, and there is no single solution. I think that goes to MLA Green's comment about how I always respond to poverty questions. At its most fundamental level, Mr. Speaker, the department priorities and planning in the health and social services are grounded on a population health approach. A population health approach has as one of its fundamental considerations the fact that poverty is linked to health. So in our planning and design of programs and services, the consideration of poverty is built into the work that we are doing as a Department of Health and Social Services. It is also built into the work that Education, Culture and Employment is doing, as well as the Housing Corporation, so it is something that is being done by Health and Social Services and in cooperation with other departments in our government.
How can the department share povertyrelated health information with other GNWT departments and other Ministers to improve the whole government's approach to eliminating poverty?
In the last government, the government, in cooperation with NGOs, Aboriginal governments, community governments, and other stakeholders, put together an antipoverty framework. One of the things that has frustrated me about that important work, and it was important work and I appreciate all the work the stakeholders have put in, but it is something we hear time and time again. Number one, there is no evaluation criteria established for any of the work being done on addressing poverty in the Northwest Territories. Number two, there was no real agreedupon definition of what poverty is.
These are things that came up at the last antipoverty round table again. It's my belief, and we need to work together as an Assembly to figure out how to move forward on this, that we do need a definition of poverty in the Northwest Territories so that we have something that we can actually measure ourselves against. Also, we had discussions; we haven't established things that we need to evaluate that do need to be based on something, and a definition would go a long way to making that happen.
The bottom line is we aren't evaluating our programs against poverty, and I have no information to provide about success. I could tell you how many programs we have run. I could tell you from an education point of view how many people are on income support, but I cannot tell you the success rate in reducing poverty that our programs have. We have to continue to work with our stakeholders to identify and develop that criteria. Then we need to start tracking it so over the years we will be able to provide that information to tailor our programs to meet those outcomes.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu NedheWiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement, I spoke about the Department of Justice doing an integrated case management approach that they have completed recently. I was wondering if the Minister could tell me: what does the Minister think about piloting an integrated case management approach to poverty and health in our small communities, maybe to start with, on the pilot? Thank you.
The Member is asking for the Minister's opinion, but I will allow the Minister to answer.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member is asking for my opinion on something that I haven't actually had any discussion with the Member on. I'm not sure exactly what the Member means by an "integrated case management approach" to this particular challenge that we face across the Northwest Territories. I would be happy if the Member were to send me something from committee and himself outlining exactly what he's talking about so that I can get informed, so that I could therefore develop an opinion.
Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
