Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to expand on something I raised in my reply to the Budget Address last week. I reminded the House that: "People with low incomes and no jobs have a tendency to have poorer health. That is simply a fact -- not just here, but all over the world."
So our response to poverty doesn't only need social interventions like education programs or housing assistance and economic interventions like job creation. We also need health interventions. Poverty is a thief of dreams and opportunities, but it is also a thief of health, the so-called "life expectancy gap" or, more bluntly, the "death gap."
That's right. The wealthy are healthy, while poverty shortens our lives just like obesity, heavy drinking, or smoking does. One recent study tells us that low-income adults lose an average of 25 months off their life, while obesity takes off eight months and alcoholism, six months.
The group Canada Without Poverty recently zeroed in on our own poverty problems in the NWT: widespread disparities in housing, income, and employment that hit our First Nations, Inuit, and Metis people in our smaller communities harder than others.
Because, when it comes to health, poverty is a two-headed snake. Indirectly, poverty stands between people and education, employment opportunities, proper housing, and food security. Meanwhile, poverty directly causes chronic stress, linked to shorter lifespans and decreased health durability. Can you imagine how much harder it is to keep your body and mind healthy when you're stressed, hungry, tired, cold, and can't dependably access healthy food?
These things happen in Canada, Mr. Speaker. These things happen here.
Before taxes, 17.2 per cent of NWT families would be considered low-income, but that statistic doesn't tell the whole story -- it's also where you live within the NWT. It is 8.9 per cent of Yellowknife families and 29.8 per cent of the families in our small communities. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted