Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak of our most precious resource, the children of the North.
Our children are our future. They will be the ones to bring us to prosperity; they will be the ones who will become our leaders in the 21st Century; they will be the ones who care for us as we grow old.
The people of the North are very protective of their resources, as they should be.
We recognize our dependency on the land and on the sea. We develop, harvest and manage our natural resources carefully. We are always attentive to our obligation to provide for future generations, and we are ever mindful of how fragile our environment really is.
But sometimes it seems we forget how fragile our children are.
As our most precious resource, children are also our most vulnerable resource. They continue to be exposed to family violence, to crime, to alcohol abuse, to illness, to accident and injury, and they suffer as a result.
Increasingly, children are being taken into care because they need to be protected from harm.
Our social workers are doing everything that they can to protect children, but it does not seem to be enough.
Other care givers such as nurses, foster parents, teachers, counsellors of all sorts, as well as concerned members of the community, are doing everything that they can.
But that does not seem to be enough.
The need, obligation and responsibility to protect children does not fall solely on the shoulders of government.
This responsibility must be met by those of us in this Assembly, by every parent, every family member, and every member of the community.
We must do everything that we can to ensure our children are born healthy, raised in a protective and nurturing home and community, and kept safe from harm.
We owe them nothing less, since without our children we have no future.
In the next Session, I will introduce new child welfare legislation which gives communities the power to make decisions about taking children into care.
In closing, Mr. Speaker, I call on all Members of this House to support a renewed emphasis on child welfare to help keep all children safe.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.