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Roland Butler, Opposition Critic for Human Resources, Labour and Employment
and MHA for the District of Port de Grave, says he wants Minister Joan Burke
to start moving forward immediately with the development of a strategic plan
on addressing the issue of poverty. "Government announced in the budget
speech that they would be allocating $200,000 to develop a strategic plan to
address the issue of poverty in the province, but to this point we have not
been provided any details on when this process will begin and what it will
entail," said Butler.
"If past performance is any indication, I have to be very skeptical about
seeing any real action being taken to deal with the root causes of poverty
in this province. This is a government that has closed Human Resources,
Labour and Employment offices around the province and made it harder for
people on income support to access good housing. They have also neglected
health and education in so many ways that I have no confidence that they are
serious about social policy."
The Liberal MHA says he expects this process to be another smokescreen
which the government will use to try to hide their lack of action on serious
poverty issues. "Rather than a plan for action, I suspect this strategy will
be a stalling tactic to delay doing anything. I intend to continue to be
vigilant in calling on government to address poverty issues."
Butler says, if Minister Burke is serious about dealing with poverty, she
should have released more details about the strategy by now. "What are the
terms of reference for the development of this plan? What will be the
process? When will it be completed? What commitment do we have that any plan
arising from the process will be acted upon? What resources will be
committed to implementing this strategy? These are all questions that must
be answered."
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