August 21, 2013 PROVINCE THANKS COMMUNITY GROUPS, PUBLIC FOR INPUT ON POVERTY STRATEGY – – – ALL Aboard Consultations to Guide Province as it Moves Forward to Help More Manitobans Leave Poverty Behind: Irvin-Ross The province is renewing its commitment to help end poverty for more Manitobans and will move forward with the guidance of consultations with the public and community groups, Housing and Community Development Minister Kerri Irvin-Ross announced today. “While the work we have done has helped to reduce poverty for many Manitobans, we know we have more work to do,” Irvin-Ross said. “The valuable insights we heard during the spring consultations will help guide our work moving forward.” More than 500 submissions made to the ALL Aboard committee, co-chaired by Irvin-Ross, have been compiled in a report entitled What we heard – Key Findings from the March 2013 ALL Aboard: Poverty Reduction and Social Inclusion Strategy Consultations. The report, which is being distributed to anti‑poverty groups and everyone who participated in the consultations, highlights the main themes gleaned from consultation sessions, written submissions and ALL Aboard survey responses. “Our government is committed to working with the community and other levels of government to tackle the root causes of poverty,” Irvin-Ross said. “Because this is a priority, we made our poverty reduction strategy law and put in place clear indicators that we use to report progress to the legislature annually. The ALL Aboard consultations this spring will help shape the province’s future work on ALL Aboard: Poverty Reduction and Social Inclusion Strategy.” The minister noted the province’s anti-poverty strategy includes: •building affordable housing for low-income families and providing support services to meet the needs of Manitobans struggling with addictions and mental-health issues; •investing in schools, colleges, universities and apprenticeships to help individuals and families obtain meaningful work; •building and improving roads, health-care centres, schools and other infrastructure to keep the unemployment rate among the lowest in Canada; •keeping Manitoba one of the most affordable places to live by keeping the provincial sales tax off of groceries, removing it from baby supplies and guaranteeing in law that Manitoba will have the lowest-cost bundle of utilities in Canada; and •investing in innovative poverty reduction initiatives such as Winnipeg’s first community food centre that will help combat hunger by bringing people together to grow, cook, share and advocate for good food. “We have seen the impact of failing to invest in affordable housing. That’s why we have made significant investments in building and renewing Manitoba Housing across the province,” Irvin-Ross said. “We know that cutting funding to education and training undermines Manitobans’ ability to get the skills they need to get good jobs. That’s why we are investing in education at the rate of economic growth as well as investing in apprenticeship programs.” What we heard – Key Finding from the March 2013 ALL Aboard: Poverty Reduction and Social Inclusion Strategy Consultations is available at www.gov.mb.ca/allaboard/consultation. More information on Manitoba’s anti-poverty strategy is available at www.manitoba.ca/allaboard. To obtain this document in an alternate format, please contact 204-945-3380 in Winnipeg or allaboard@gov.mb.ca.