Poverty is an ongoing problem with no one solution, but that hasn’t stopped the provincial government from trying to address it. The Advisory Group on Poverty Reduction that was formed in December has launched an online public consultation website where anyone can go on and provide feedback until May 15.
“When the group was announced, the one thing we heard loud and clear was that we don’t need more talk, we need action,” said Alison Robertson, advisory group co-chair. “At the same time, we know that there are some gaps in the knowledge that we have.”
To fill those gaps, the group is launching not just the website, but also roundtable discussions with key stakeholders from across the province. They will include representatives from the business sector, charitable and advocacy organizations, aboriginal groups, people with lived experience, etc. According to Robertson, it’ll be a “diverse cross section.”
Unlike those discussions, the website will be open to everyone. The results from all of those information outlets will be used by the advisory group to make recommendations to the government as to possible starting points for reducing poverty.
“Of the things you’d expect to hear, housing and childcare income support is something we hear about frequently,” said Robertson. “These same types of things came up in other consultations across the province.”
Once they’ve collected all the information from the feedback and roundtable discussions, Robertson expects that the advisory committee will have the recommendations ready for the government by June. The first of these discussions took place April 28 and will be facilitated by a representative from Tamarack Institute for Community Engagement, which is a national poverty reduction organization.
While this article was written before the discussion took place, Robertson said it would ask people to weigh in on what they see as some of the promising practices, what’s already working, where there are opportunities and where there are gaps.
“We’ll also be asking people to share some of the opportunities they see for alignment for various initiatives, how we can co-ordinate them better and have more of an impact,” she said. “We’ll be asking how we can work together better, if we could work across sectors, aligning their efforts to fix a particular issue.”
For example, one ministry might have a target they’re trying to hit, but their results are dependent on how another ministry provides services. The discussion will look at ways to synchronize the services.
“There’s a need for a more comprehensive approach,” said Robertson. “The solutions that we have need to also take that complexity into account so it’s not just one dimensional.”
It’s clear from what Robertson has said that there is no one-stop solution, but at least the province will have a chance to give their input into ways the government can get started.
