Securing a Sustainable Future

Lifting from Poverty

Mr. Speaker, two years ago, we announced a Poverty Reduction Strategy that national anti-poverty leaders are hailing as a model for the country. Last year, we built on that foundation, and this year, we are announcing further measures to both prevent people from falling into poverty and lift people from poverty throughout Newfoundland and Labrador. In total this year, we are investing an additional $12 million, which translates into more than $17.3 million on an ongoing annual basis. Once fully implemented in 2009-10, these initiatives will bring this government’s total ongoing annual investment of new funding for poverty reduction to more than $100 million.

Sometimes, the most effective strategy for poverty reduction involves prevention and early intervention. We will invest more than $1.7 million to support youth at risk through several new and innovative measures. We are implementing a Youth Addiction Prevention and Early Intervention Program. Additionally, new pilot projects will help young people make the transition from residential care and improve high school graduation rates in areas where they are very low. At the same time, we are continuing to expand and strengthen our very successful Community Youth Networks so young people in more communities will benefit. To date, these networks have provided opportunities for some 14,000 young people ages 12 to 18 in 40 communities in our province to engage successfully in the life of their community.

We are committed to do more to help children at even younger ages by investing $1 million in a package of initiatives to improve access to healthy food and community activities. We are building on the success of our Healthy Baby clubs by addressing wait lists and enhancing the food supplements we provide. We are expanding the Kids Eat Smart initiative to include more schools. We are increasing funding for the Jumpstart program to enable children in low-income families to participate in the recreational activities offered in their communities. We are investing in a new Community Collaboration Facilitator for the west coast of the province to apply valuable lessons learned from the successful Community Centre Alliance on the Avalon. This will strengthen connections between the Dunfield Park Community Centre and other community centres on the west coast, drawing in complementary services to benefit children, youth and their families living in social housing.

To encourage and enable income support clients to have greater participation in the work force, we will extend the Make Work Pay Workplace Connections initiative to cover all clients who work. We will also provide additional supports to enable income support clients with disabilities to find and maintain employment. We will expand the Employment Transition Project for single parents which has seen over 80 per cent of participants either become employed or go on to post-secondary training. We will also invest $470,000 in community-based workplace skills training and a micro-lending program to give budding entrepreneurs an opportunity to do business.

Since we took office in 2003, we have increased the province’s minimum wage incrementally from $6.00 an hour to $8.00 an hour. Our government’s Blueprint commits to plan for future increases in the minimum wage in a predictable and incremental manner with a view to achieving a minimum wage of $10 per hour by 2010. This winter, as part of the review of the minimum wage, we sought and received public and stakeholder input from throughout the province. We are considering this feedback and preparing to move this process forward in the near future.

Adequate, affordable housing is essential to self-sufficiency. We are investing $1.4 million to improve access to housing, particularly for seniors and those working for low wages. We are addressing the wait list for Newfoundland and Labrador Housing’s Rent Supplement Program and, building on last year’s initiative for Newfoundland and Labrador Housing tenants, we are expanding the changes in the Rent Geared to Income formula to other not-for-profit housing. This will decrease rent for working and senior tenants.

We are increasing our allocation to the province’s women’s centres by five per cent for a total investment of $840,000. Under our government, annual funding to each of the province’s eight women’s centres has more than doubled - from $50,000 in 2003-04 to $105,000 today. These centres provide invaluable services to women and their families throughout Newfoundland and Labrador.

We will work this year to explore the links between poverty and violence by establishing, as a pilot project, a Family Violence Treatment Court. This project is intended to respond more effectively to the needs of victims of family violence, to hold offenders more accountable for their actions, to reduce rates of recidivism and to deal with the root causes of family violence.