Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to present a petition dealing with the matter of Climate and Energy Action Plan.

The petition contains 73 handwritten signatures and 80 electronic signatures of Northwest Territories residents. The petitioners request that the Government of the Northwest Territories:

Collect a $3.50 tonne (co2eq) levy on carbon pollution from all fossil fuels sales in order to finance a new fund that would provide financial assistance to:

Homeowners and businesses to assist them to take action to reduce carbon pollution and fossil fuel use; and

Aboriginal governments and...

Thank you. Indeed, we do need to think long term and I don’t believe the Minister is doing that. Obviously, these school boards are losing over $1.5 million over the next two years and then they’ll lose all of the revenue that they have from junior kindergarten currently in the third year, so they will be in a net deficit and yet huge new responsibilities that the Minister is asking them to take on. \What collaboration and support has the Minister experienced for this plan from our school boards? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are following up on my Member’s statement directed to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. The Minister is reducing annual funding to Yellowknife school boards by hundreds of thousands of dollars each, starting in a few months.

What will be the total reductions for the next two years and what will be the amount reinstated in year three when Yellowknife’s junior kindergarten must begin? Mahsi.

Are there additional obligations, though, to check in with the Aboriginal governments who have not settled but on whose land access is being completed? Thank you.

That sounds good. Thank you for that. Sorry, I had one more. The regime should not apply in those regions where Aboriginal land rights have not been recognized or settled. Is that the case currently? Thank you.

The board should reflect a co-management model where Aboriginal and public governments each appoint half of the members. Is that the case in the board created by this legislation? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to table two documents. The first is called “Income Security for all Canadians.” The second is an infographic that has a lot of good stuff in it, called “The Case for a Guaranteed Income – Lifting People from Poverty: Fairly, Efficiently and Effectively.” Mahsi.

Thank you. I think there are a lot of people out there that could make suggestions that are caught in these poverty traps, but I’ll take the Minister’s offer and work with him on that.

I know the Minister and I have the same goal here, so I hope he takes these points as constructive and friendly suggestions.

Would the Minister commit to including the six recommendations I made this morning on income support in the anti-poverty work that he is doing? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement with questions for the Minister of the social envelope today, Minister Abernethy. The Minister has been working hard on an Anti-Poverty Strategy and more recently an Anti-Poverty Action Plan. The strategy and plan are based around five pillars.

Could the Minister explain which pillar addresses the poverty traps that are built into our income security programs that I’ve been talking about for the last three days? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I continue looking at our income security system by seeking ways to avoid the creation of poverty traps. In my last two statements I described how Charles ended up in a system that leaves him struggling to feed his family and that pulls him back down every time he tries to make a bit of money on his own. Charles is not a real person, but we all have constituents, family members and friends in such situations.

The experiences of Charles and his family lead to obvious recommendations:

We need a realistic definition of a poverty line based on the actual costs of...