Poverty is a result of circumstance, rather than a lack of a person's personal effort. In addition, "unacceptable" increasing income disparities must be addressed through a national program, stated a majority of Canadians in an Angus Reid Institute poll on poverty released this month.Two-thirds of Canadians agree the federal and provincial governments fail to address poverty meaningfully, but are divided on how government should remedy poverty, the poll showed.
Only 25 per cent of respondents in the Angus Reid poll agreed that "people are poor because they're lazy" – a concept increasingly losing traction in Canadian society, said one poverty expert.
"The idea that poverty is caused by individual failure and people need to pull up their bootstraps is an old adage that doesn't have much relevance in Canada," said Michele Biss, legal education and outreach coordinator at non-profit Canada Without Poverty (CWP).
"There is no question that people in Canada understand that poverty is a result of systemic failures" and a human rights issue that allows people to "fall through the cracks," said Biss.
The GNWT instituted an anti-poverty strategy in 2015 and by 2017 raised its anti-poverty fund from $500,000 to $1 million to meet an influx of requests for funding.
In 2017, it received $2 million in requests for funding. By 2018, the GNWT received $4 million in funding requests for anti-poverty projects, denying roughly $3 million in
requests, stated the territory.
Some of the projects the GNWT funded in 2017 through the initiative include greenhouses, community hunts, employment programs, rapid rehousing, meal programs, sexual health education and regional anti-poverty initiatives.
Biss said the GNWT hosts annual meetings on its anti-poverty strategy with opportunities to review its mandate and hear from stakeholders – something other provinces and territories are deficient in.
It doesn't, however, explicitly refer to human rights and it does not have a "claiming" mechanism for people affected by inaction on poverty to make formal complaints to their government, she said.
In its annual roundtable, "the NWT inches closer," to accountability, giving an opportunity to review its strategy and make relevant amendments, she said.
"There is not enough data on what poverty looks like in a region. We have really tiny charities who are desperately trying to assemble the data pieces we can to understand the trends in what happens across the country," she said.
A claiming mechanism could force governments to hear the experiences of people living in poverty, she said.
"To live in poverty so often feels voiceless to feel that your experiences don't matter," said Biss.
Poverty must be defined as a "violation of human rights for people trying to access housing, food and a living wage … people who have to choose between a hydro bill and food, or living in overcrowding, or cannot find child care and are desperate to go to work so they can't leave social assistance," said Biss.
Creative projects are helping people in the territory, said Health and Social Services Minister Glen Abernethy in an interview with Yellowknifer.
"We're trying to improve our housing programs to make it easier for individuals and families that are struggling to have safe places to live," he said.
The GNWT implemented free junior kindergarten for four-year-olds to lower the cost burden on young families. Industry Tourism and Investment is working to expand employment and Abernethy, in his ministerial role, is working on improvements around mental health and addictions, he said.
The GNWT is also awaiting the federal anti-poverty plan, he said.
"There's always more we can do, ourselves our Indigenous partners and NGOs to address poverty in the NWT. It can't just be the GNWT, it has to be all of us working together," he said.
When asked how the GNWT performs on poverty, Abernethy said, "It's a challenge. I've seen us investing a lot into community. Our economy is struggling and that's compounding the problem."
"You can't solve poverty problems without a healthy economy, and you can't solve poverty when people are trying to get educations or ... struggling with addictions," said Abernethy.
The anti-poverty fund is also meant to help community groups leverage funds from elsewhere, though not all groups are in a position to do so, he said.
"There is no intention to increase that fund. Money in the NWT is very tight" and the GNWT is seeking other funding partners, said Abernethy.
"It would be nice to see industry get involved."
Despite Northern struggles with mental wellness and addiction, the NWT is "seeing positive results at community levels thanks to NGOs and Indigenous governments," said Abernethy.
"Are we perfect? No. Are we making progress? Yes," he said.
Community partners are embarking on creative projects, including soup kitchens and community gardens like the one in Gameti, which is "growing legs and making a difference," he said.
The GNWT monitors and reports on its anti-poverty initiatives according to its anti-poverty action plan, issuing a progress report at the annual round table.
Of the GNWT’s $1.7-billion budget, it dedicates .05 per cent to the anti-poverty fund.
As the federal government prepares its national anti-poverty strategy, advocates like CWP “hope they will attach a claiming mechanism so that if rights are being violated, some has to listen to them,” said Biss.
A 2017 progress report by CWP identified key gaps in the territory’s work to reduce poverty.
“Each province and territory has a very unique cobweb of poverty and some of those issues outweigh others,” said Biss.
The GNWT strategy lacks clear investments in problems of food insecurity, housing and child care.
Many parents in the NWT currently pay between $45 and $62 dollars a day to access early childhood education and the NWT would need to increase spending by roughly $20-million per year to have a child care system comparable to Québec.
A University of Toronto Proof study report, found the NWT has the highest rates of food insecurity since 2005, jumping from 14 per cent to 24 per cent in the last decade.
It’s food insecurity rates are the second highest, above the national average of eight per cent.
“When we look at poverty, we don't isolate elements we look at the broad spectrum, but food security stands out. Housing inaffordability and lack of access to childcare compound poverty” she said.