Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to present to this Assembly Bill 17, An Act to Amend the Child Day Care Act, which amends sections 16 and 17 of this act. The bill incorporates the recommendations of the standing committee on legislation, which met on March 5th and again on March 31st, 1992. Presently, section 16 of the current Child Day Care Act is deficient in that it does not allow the director of child day-care services to suspend a licence of an operator of a licensed day-care facility pending an investigation of allegations of child abuse or neglect.
The director presently has the power to suspend a licence after she has issued an order requiring the operator to comply with the act or regulations and the operator refuses to do so. Also, the director presently has the power to suspend a licence without issuing an order where she has reasonable grounds to believe that an operator has contravened the act or regulations thereby endangering the health, safety or well-being of children in a licensed facility.
Mr. Chairman, as I previously indicated, these powers do not include the power to suspend a licence where the health, safety or well-being of a child or children are endangered due to suspected physical or sexual abuse or neglect. Mr. Chairman, under the proposed bill, section 16 of the act will be repealed and a new section 16 substituted with this additional power added.
Mr. Chairman, subsection 17(2) is also amended to allow the director to reinstate an operator's licence that had been suspended, upon application by the operator. A new subsection 17(3) will allow the director to reinstate a licence that has been suspended due to the health, safety or well-being of children in a facility being in endangered, without the operator having to reapply, where the director is of the opinion that the grounds for suspension no longer exist.
An example of where this would be used would be in the case where a thorough investigation into allegations had been conducted by the Department of Social Services and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and there is insufficient evidence of abuse or neglect. The director would act expediently under section 17(3) to reinstate the licence without awaiting an application from the operator.
Mr. Chairman, a decision to amend this act was made after extensive consultation with, and upon recommendations of, legal counsel and legislative counsel with the Department of Justice. Those are my remarks, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.