This is page numbers 191 - 216 of the Hansard for the 17th Assembly, 1st Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was poverty.

Topics

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about growing up in Tulita – at that time Fort Norman – as a young boy and what we had to do to support each other. I guess my question is probably to the Premier.

We didn’t know what poor was until we started to have some measurement of what other people had that we didn’t have. We supported each other. I want to ask the Premier if this government is working on a definition of poverty for the Northwest Territories.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member knows, we’ve been doing a lot of consultation and going throughout the regions and visiting 13 communities, I believe. We also had a survey across the Northwest Territories and we’ve developed a discussion paper which we are now developing into a strategy which will be based on the community consultations that we undertook and the priorities set by this Assembly to develop an Anti-Poverty Strategy. As part of that, my expectation is that there will be a definition of poverty in there.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

There are various interpretations of the definition of poverty. There are forums on how to tackle poverty in the Northwest Territories. I want to ask the Premier, in his work that is before him with the anti-poverty organizations and communities, does he have an indication as to when a strategy will be completed that will have further discussions with Members from this side?

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

Since the coalition of 14 groups presented a number of documents to the previous Premier in the 16th Assembly, which was

in December 2009, there has been considerable work undertaken in this area. It is our expectation that we will have this by the middle of 2012.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

I look forward to the report some time in 2012. As part of the report, has there been any type of discussion on any upcoming legislation that would support the strategy for the anti-poverty for the North?

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

When we met the Caucus of the 17th Assembly, we developed the priorities for

this Assembly. We identified the priorities which are

all part and parcel of an Anti-Poverty Strategy. In our discussion we did not envision legislation for an anti-poverty act, but I guess as we go forward, if that’s something that’s brought forward, we would look at it.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m very hopeful in hearing the Minister’s words that if there is some interest or some need that we need to look at some legislation to support the Anti-Poverty Strategy initiatives, that we could have a look at it and, of course, that will support the goals of the Caucus priorities to see where we need to move away from some of the issues that are brought forward. I want to ask the Premier if he would put out a call or discussion paper or something that would now begin to bring in the key people to start working on this Anti-Poverty Strategy for some finality within the life of this government.

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

We’ve already undertaken at least six months of consultations and survey work. We can get a copy of any existing anti-poverty acts and provide it to the Member and we can use it for our benefit as well.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are also for the Premier today. I just want to follow up on my Member’s statement. Clearly, the statistics describe the vast disparity in household incomes between our richest and poorest citizens. I would appreciate a general reaction on this from the Premier. It’s obvious that these are trustworthy numbers and the trend is not a good one. Does the Premier agree that we can’t really claim to have a just and equitable society when some people have so much and increasing numbers of other people struggle to survive on so little? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Premier, Minister McLeod.

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The facts as quoted by my colleague, in fact, are true. I mean, we see quoted in national media that Yellowknife has the highest per capita income in Canada, but they never report on the high cost of living.

There was considerable work done in the 15th Assembly where we looked at how much this government was spending on subsidies to assist people living in the Northwest Territories, and the number that we came to was something in the neighbourhood of $158 million. There was also

work undertaken by ECE and Health and Social Services to see what salary range we would have to go to before the subsidies or support stops. I think the most expensive place was Sachs Harbour and I think it was $93,000.

There are differences between the small and large communities. We also looked at how could we do it so that we have a system whereby no matter how you set it up, if you work, you’re always better off than not working. We did some work in that area and I’m expecting that as part of our Shelter Policy review that we will have some discussions about those areas. Thank you.

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you for that response from the Premier. I think it’s well known that this government is spending a lot on these issues and particularly in the area of housing. That’s certainly got a lot of national attention lately. Yet, clearly, the income disparity increases. The number of people living in poverty, that proportion of their income doesn’t change and gradually worsens, relative to our high income people. There is still some work to be done and I think that’s what we’re all about today.

Many other Canadian jurisdictions have pursued the approach of anti-poverty strategies. Their approaches are based on the principle that people have a right to adequate food, housing, health care and other basic social services.

I’d also like to confirm, before my last couple of questions, that this government subscribes to this principle, and ask the Premier what we need to do to actually work with families to help get them out of poverty rather than just helping them live in poverty. Thank you.

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

I’d like to point out that we’re not starting something new. This started in the 16th Assembly. In May of 2010 the Premier of

the day committed to developing a discussion paper on anti-poverty. There was an intergovernmental working group set up. In October 2010 there was an anti-poverty workshop set up. In December 2010 we had an advisory group of stakeholders on poverty. We undertook community consultations over a period of January to April 2011. We also briefed standing committee. We did a survey, as I indicated. We had a report on what we heard. We’ve been working and developed a broad discussion paper. We’re now at the stage where we are looking at having an Anti-Poverty Strategy.

This is work that we’re building on. We have gone directly to the people of the Northwest Territories, we’ve heard their reaction and their views on what the causes of poverty are and we will build that into our strategy that we are working on. Thank you.

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

I’m glad we are working on a poverty strategy. I think there are probably a couple

of different interpretations on the work that’s been done to date; however, I won’t dwell on that.

Representatives of the Anti-Poverty Alliance met recently with the Priorities and Planning committee to discuss developments on creation of an Anti-Poverty Strategy, and they also plan to meet with Cabinet in the new year, I believe, in January. Given the broad-based called for creation of a strategy, the unfulfilled promises of the last government and a promise to make an Anti-Poverty Strategy a priority from 18 of us, when will this government actually meet the commitments and get to work on a strategy, and can the Premier confirm that that’s actually underway right now? Thank you.

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

We will be meeting with the Anti-Poverty Coalition, I believe it’s called, on January 19th . We are working on a draft strategy

that will build on the priorities of the 17th Assembly.

It’s my expectation that we would have something by the middle of 2012. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My final question for the Premier is: The request for an Anti-Poverty Strategy calls for its creation through a broad process involving businesses, communities, organizations, labour, and people living in poverty. Will the Premier commit to just such a process? Thank you.

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

I believe I tried to convey in my previous response that we’ve already done that. We’ve already gone out and consulted throughout every region of the Northwest Territories. We met with over 250 people. We’ve held over 30 focus group sessions in 13 communities. We conducted a territorial-wide survey to get people’s views on poverty. We believe we’ve done the heavy lifting already so that we can get to work on developing an Anti-Poverty Strategy based on the priorities of the 17th Assembly. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question today is for the Minister of Justice. We look at some of the underlying factors that lead people into poverty and sometimes it’s not necessarily the case of their fault; it’s, rather, an outside source. And in this case I’m talking about the drug dealers and the bootleggers in the communities that continue to feed off of the weaknesses and the addictions that people have in the communities. My question today is for the Minister of Justice. What are their plans to increase the RCMP presence in the communities

and whether or not they are looking at increasing their RCMP canine force by including possibly another member in that area for the north region of the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Moses. The honourable Minister of Justice, Mr. Abernethy.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Minister of Justice

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Member for that question. Currently the “G” Division has two fully operational drug services in the Northwest Territories. One is located here in Yellowknife; the other one is in Hay River. These teams support the division, all the detachments throughout the Northwest Territories. The dogs and their handlers also visit communities throughout the Northwest Territories, both for showcasing what they do but also to conduct investigations. This is part of our promotional anti, sort of, prevention mechanism as well.

Recently the teams attended some community visits in Inuvik and then from there they actually went out to all of the communities in the Beaufort-Delta or as many as they could get to. The RCMP needs to examine if they still need the value of these services to see if additional services will be required. Once they have done this analysis, they will be able to tell us and submit a proposal for increased dog teams in the Northwest Territories. We don’t know what the results of that review are, but once we get it, I will share that information with the Member.

With respect to what we are doing in the Northwest Territories, the Department of Justice and the RCMP division are investigating options for improving community services. These are the types of things I talked about yesterday with Minister Yakeleya. We are increasing relief unit capacity. We are increasing the number and length of patrols in the communities, and we are adding RCMP community officers who would act as liaisons between the RCMP and the communities. This research is ongoing. This information is being collected. As we bring it in, we will be able to start answering those questions more fully.