Bob Bromley

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...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Monfwi, that Bill 16, Northwest Territories Intergovernmental Agreement on Lands and Resources Management Act, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill implements the Northwest Territories Intergovernmental Agreement on Lands and Resources Management and sets out the structure and duties of the Intergovernmental Council on Lands and Resources Management. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. I don’t claim to have all the answers. A critical look is more than fair.

This morning the Minister was on the radio talking about child protection with the greatest source factor being neglect. Does the Minister share my assessment that child protection issues and many of social, health and corrections issues are actually symptoms of families living in poverty, and investing in poverty reduction will address this underlying cause saving us money in the long term?

I appreciate the Minister’s openness here. I know the Minister has stated that he’s committed to eradicating poverty and I believe him and fully support this goal. But I’d like to know, how will we know we have reached that goal? The income support system traps people in an income zone that does not even provide people enough to eat.

Will the Anti-Poverty Action Plan develop a definition of a poverty line or perhaps a poverty zone, income zone, that will allow us to know what we are aiming for? Mahsi.

Thank you. I’d appreciate it if that could be provided to the House and tabled. Why the increase here?

I think many entities would budget with this in mind. If the supplementary reserve is insufficient, let’s change it. But what happens is we end up stealing from Peter to pay Paul here when in fact we could allocate responsibly right in the beginning. As I say, this degree of correction is unacceptable in my mind. Many of these things, as I say, are predictable and pretty well known. This government’s been operating a long time.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Unfortunately, this expenditure will drive us well beyond our supplementary reserve. In fact, it blows it right out of the water. In the supportive documents, I keep seeing the word shortfall. What’s happened here is we have done a very shoddy job on budgeting. This is riddled with examples of entirely predictable costs and it reflects to me a really irresponsible approach to budgeting in the first place, and here we are again putting our supplementary reserve into major deficit. This isn’t the first time this has been brought up. We have been bringing this up repeatedly...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe my amendment to the amendment is now before the House, but I will repeat it.

I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Frame Lake, that the amendment to Motion 13-17(5) be amended by adding the following after the phrase “first paragraph after the resolution portion of the motion”: and replacing them with the words “before that group begins in that community”. I would like to speak to the motion, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I see this is a request for Medical Travel Program costs. Again, I’m disappointed here. Basically we have poured in, in both during the 16th and 17th Assemblies, tens of millions of dollars to increase the efficiency of our medical travel system. Specifically on electronic medical records, telehealth, call forward physician access, community pharmaceutical supplies, community electronic imaging capacity. I am just again wondering what’s happening here on the increasing costs that we’re seeing, or is it a budgeting issue? I understand that Stanton Territorial Hospital...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This phrase is awkward, but it is the kernel of the motion, I believe. I think what Mr. Menicoche is saying, and I agree, is we don’t want the whole program stopped if some community, JK group, doesn’t have an ECE worker. It’s just that that particular JK group should not go ahead until there is an early childhood education worker. On that basis, Mr. Chair, I would like to propose an amendment to the amendment. Mahsi.