There are probably two comments I'd like to make. One is that I don't think I necessarily have prescriptions for what would be a good program for the Northwest Territories, and that probably speaks to what I think the federal government should be looking for if it does come up with an anti-poverty strategy. It can't be one-size-fits-all. It has to empower provincial and territorial governments to address the problems that are endemic in their local area. For us that includes transportation, it includes housing, and other matters like that.
I don't have an immediate prescription for how to do that, but I think the critical thing is that we're not the same as Prince Edward Island, we're not the same as a riding south of Montreal. The country is big and diverse and we have different problems. There should be an anti-poverty strategy that sets a minimum standard underneath all Canadians. How we actually get there should be achieved through consultation and through the empowerment of people closer to on-the-ground services.
I don't know if that's helpful to you.
On a second point, you spoke about the history of how Canada has been operating in the last 15 or 20 years. In 1995 there was an across-the-board 5% cut implemented in the Northwest Territories as a cost-saving measure. The housing programs were killed, income security programs were killed, and we've still not recovered from that to this day. The soft services were the ones that were cut; the hard services were maintained. That 5% translated into virtually no housing being built in the Northwest Territories, outside of the few communities that have a market.
I'm not sure if people are clear on the fact that in the communities there is no market for private housing. Very few are built and very few are ever sold. There just is no market there. When we talk we have to be conscious of the reality up here. In the smaller communities no one's going to build or buy or sell a house. There are financial or banking reasons for that.
Where I'm going on that is that I think we got ourselves into the position we're in now, with the poverty at the level we have, the desperation at the level we have now, at least in part through conscious public policy.