 |
|
TOP 5 ARTICLES
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| NEWS | |  |
|
|
|
| Last updated at 3:28 PM on 12/11/08 |
|
Ministers Susan Sullivan and Shawn Skinner sit with Aisling Gogan, lead director of the Poverty Reduction Strategy, at the Harbour Breton public consultations last week. Matthew Molloy photo |
|
|
Ministers pleased with turnout for consultation 
Poverty Reduction Strategy
MATTHEW MOLLOY
Coaster
Fourteen people showed up at the Poverty Reduction Strategy consultation in Harbour Breton last Monday and the two ministers present were impressed with the discussion.
"I was very impressed with the turnout here tonight. It's so impressive to see so many people who have genuine concerns about their area and who are concerned about the initiatives of this government in terms of poverty reduction," said Susan Sullivan, Minister of Human Resources, Labour and Employment. "It's important that these people come out to give their opinion and their expertise because it's the kind of expertise we need - it's on the ground, it's people who experience it, who help people, who see people in need and who are able to identify the issues. It's those people who make a difference in helping us to do our job."
Minister Sullivan said there were a number of topics that caught her attention last Monday evening at the Southern Port Hotel in Harbour Breton.
"I was particularly struck by what we heard from the young people; their desire to stay in their communities, their pride in their communities and the difficulties they encounter. These are people who are educated and people who have a lot to offer to their communities. They're struggling to be able to stay here and they identified difficult issues as finding a place to live, and I was very much struck by that," Minister Sullivan said. "I was struck by the issues of young people who are not able to go on and seek an education because of poverty, or because of some economic issues that would prevent them from being able to do that - particularly when we look at the uneven playing field...the rural to urban centres and the additional costs of trying to get an education when a student is from a rural area compared to an urban area.
"In terms of health care, I was impressed by the information offered by one of the mayors of the communities who suggested we really have to look at some regionalization. There was also a lady here who suggested that we need to get some clinics together and move them around so the people who need to avail of those the most can have those opportunities."
The consultation that took place Monday evening was the second of two that took place that day. The evening session was open to the public, while the first was with community-based agencies..
"The Community Youth Network was here, there were people representing seniors, women, economic development associations, municipal leaders, and so on, and that went really well. They (different groups) tended to focus on their own area of expertise. They talked about the initiatives they found very beneficial and positive and talked about the investments they want us to continue with," said Shawn Skinner, Minister of Innovation, Trade and Rural Development. "They talked about some of the challenges facing this area in terms of labour supply and not so much about the availability of people because they think there's people here, but it's having those people skilled to be able to meet the labour demand that they see is going to be happening. We got a good sense from those guys that, for the most part, what we're doing with the Poverty Reduction Strategy is making a difference - that we are making progress and we have to continue to invest in it."
The Provincial government have three goals in mind with the Poverty Reduction Strategy - one that Minister Sullivan believes is reachable.
"Our goal is a noble one and there are three pillars that we want to look at: prevent poverty, reduce poverty and alleviate poverty," Minister Sullivan said. "I think by setting that as a goal we can certainly say it's something that we're working towards and we're not going to stop - we're going to be relentless in our pursuit of that."
A few common themes were apparent at the Harbour Breton consultation. A lot of people talked about education and what they wanted to see improved, such as transportation and adding different courses to local schools. Others stressed health care and said they would like to see improvements to such things as ambulance service. Minister Skinner said he has seen three common themes at the consultations he's been a part of.
"The first one would be housing - the availability of affordable, adequate housing. The second one would be transportation - people's access to be able to get to certain services like education, recreation and health care. It's not easy given the geographic spread and population dispersal we have in the Coast of Bays region," Minister Skinner said. "The third is the recognition that we need to be strong on education. People believe the best way out of poverty is to make sure we have a well educated, well prepared group of people coming up so they can face the challenges that they're going to face once they're out in the working world."
The consultations came to an end Nov. 10 in Plum Point.
|
11/11/08
|
Comments: |
|
This Conversation is Moderated. What is moderation?
|
| What does moderation mean? |
 |
The Coaster is committed to encouraging intelligent discourse among our readers and to creating a forum where diverse views and opinions on a wide range of topics can be aired. The forum you are in now is a result of our continuing efforts to facilitate a dynamic online conversation among our readers.
This is a moderated conversation. Once a reader follows the steps to register and submit his or her comment it goes to a moderator for the website. Once it has been approved, your comment will be displayed on the website. A comment may be edited or deleted for reasons of content or language.
All readers wishing to join a conversation must first sign in and agree to the Terms of Usage, which explain the rules of acceptable content.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- there are currently no comments for this story -
|
|
|
|
|
