Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I would like to take up the issue again -- one that has frequently occupied the time of this Assembly -- of this government's decision to claw back from many, many families in the Northwest Territories the national child benefit. Mr. Speaker, the Minister responsible for this area, Mr. Dent, to his credit met with the organization Alternatives North a short while ago to receive an extremely well-developed proposal and argument they are putting forward, Mr. Speaker, that this clawback should stop. The Northwest Territories is one of only five jurisdictions, I understand, in Canada that now do this. The impact, I understand, is somewhere in the neighbourhood of $800,000 to families who right now, Mr. Speaker, are well below the poverty line.
Currently the GNWT is taking money away from those living in the deepest poverty, says the report, and those with lowest income to fund programs that a variety of people can benefit from and provide cash benefits to working families. This decision, Mr. Speaker, is an arbitrary one on the part of this government. Yet, the mothers and families who lose the benefit, in some cases, and perhaps many cases, can't access the programs that they are involuntarily helping to fund.
Alternatives North, Mr. Speaker, goes on to say in no uncertain terms that the stigma of poverty is reinforced by this approach. It further goes on to say that the childhood programs that we do invest in, while the do certainly have merit, don't address the core goal the federal government assigned in creating the national child benefit, which is to prevent and reduce child poverty. The point is very clearly made, Mr. Speaker, that the GNWT is using money aimed at the lowest income earners to subsidize programs that are universally accessible.
I'm going to be asking for the Minister's comments on this latest argument to stop clawing back the national child benefit. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Applause