Thank you, Madam Chairperson. In regard to the area of intervention and involvement, basically a lot of times a social worker is usually not the one who identifies this. It is usually a teacher in a classroom or somebody told someone of an incident that might have happened to them. It is a legal or is it a policy matter that all allegations have to be investigated, regardless of how small or how minute the allegation is? Is that the policy of this government?
Debates of Feb. 24th, 1998
This is page numbers 1041 - 1091 of the Hansard for the 13th Assembly, 5th Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was chairperson.
Topics
Committee Motion 23-13(5): To Establish A Child Advocate In The NWT Before Division
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1085
Committee Motion 23-13(5): To Establish A Child Advocate In The NWT Before Division
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1085
Committee Motion 23-13(5): To Establish A Child Advocate In The NWT Before Division
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1085
Ramsden
Madam Chairperson, there is very specific direction that the NWT has embraced that requires a response when any individual becomes aware or has concerns of a matter of child abuse. The reporting to responsible authorities must be immediate. Thank you.
Committee Motion 23-13(5): To Establish A Child Advocate In The NWT Before Division
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1085
Committee Motion 23-13(5): To Establish A Child Advocate In The NWT Before Division
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1085
David Krutko Mackenzie Delta
Thank you, Madam Chairperson. In regard to the policy of the government, there is a way of monitoring how many of these incidents have occurred based on the assumption that every one of these cases has to be filed somewhere? Is there basically a report that is given, in any given year to the number of these inquiries that take place if there has to be a report filed somewhere? Who monitors that?
Committee Motion 23-13(5): To Establish A Child Advocate In The NWT Before Division
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1085
Committee Motion 23-13(5): To Establish A Child Advocate In The NWT Before Division
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1085
Ramsden
Madam Chairperson, the department and certainly specifically, the superintendent of child welfare monitors it. What I referred to earlier is, I do not have recent data with me. We can certainly obtain that data and share it, but we have current information on a year-by-year basis. Thank you.
Committee Motion 23-13(5): To Establish A Child Advocate In The NWT Before Division
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1085
Committee Motion 23-13(5): To Establish A Child Advocate In The NWT Before Division
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1085
David Krutko Mackenzie Delta
Is it fair to say that because of the amount of cuts they have taken in the area of child welfare, the individuals they had working within the Department of Social Services, is that why we are not able to get a clearer number or the whole area of enforcement has been slack because of the number of limited human resources we have within that sector? Which before, we had more people that what we presently have in that office.
Committee Motion 23-13(5): To Establish A Child Advocate In The NWT Before Division
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1085
Committee Motion 23-13(5): To Establish A Child Advocate In The NWT Before Division
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1085
Ramsden
Madam Chairperson, first of all, just so that I can correct any confusion I may have caused, I am not suggesting it is difficult at all to obtain and share that information. I simply do not have it today, but it is information that is at hand. We worked very hard in the amalgamation process to ensure that social worker resources were not targeted and were not cut. Further to that, the combined efforts of the Ministers of Justice; Education, Culture and Employment and Health and Social Services have caused there to be additional front line resources dedicated to community supervision and income support work which has had the net effect of actually giving the social workers additional time and resources to deal with matters of child protection and child welfare. Thank you.
Committee Motion 23-13(5): To Establish A Child Advocate In The NWT Before Division
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1085
The Chair Jane Groenewegen
Thank you, Mr. Ramsden. Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Children's programs, operations and maintenance. Total operations and maintenance, $9.691 million.
Committee Motion 23-13(5): To Establish A Child Advocate In The NWT Before Division
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1085
Some Hon. Members
Agreed.
Committee Motion 23-13(5): To Establish A Child Advocate In The NWT Before Division
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1085
The Chair Jane Groenewegen
Thank you. Community health programs, operations and maintenance. Total operations and maintenance, $27.437 million. Agreed? Mr. Krutko.
Committee Motion 23-13(5): To Establish A Child Advocate In The NWT Before Division
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1085
David Krutko Mackenzie Delta
Thank you, Madam Chairperson. In regard to the community wellness programs in different communities, especially where you have different interest groups such as say, you have a band council, Metis local or hamlet, where there seems to be a real problem in identifying exactly who should have the authority to deliver the different programs and
where you have competing interests that people are going after the same program and wanting to administer it. In regard to how those programs are administered, are there certain criteria that will allow, say an aboriginal group, such as a band council or Metis local, to deliver a certain sector of that program to their membership in the community?
Committee Motion 23-13(5): To Establish A Child Advocate In The NWT Before Division
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1086
Committee Motion 23-13(5): To Establish A Child Advocate In The NWT Before Division
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1086
Ramsden
Madam Chairperson, there is certainly an opportunity. We look at areas of programming that fall into this area. They occur at a community level. We have seen tremendous success in terms of the response from community groups, whether they are a few individuals, the band, Metis local or hamlet council for that matter, around the combined use of their funds that flow from the federal government and from our department. The report that we sponsored in terms of community wellness and action for 1996-97 details some of the tremendous success in that area. I think that the Member would find that many of these programs have, in fact, been sponsored by individual aboriginal groups. Thank you.
Committee Motion 23-13(5): To Establish A Child Advocate In The NWT Before Division
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1086
Committee Motion 23-13(5): To Establish A Child Advocate In The NWT Before Division
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1086
David Krutko Mackenzie Delta
Thank you, Madam Chairperson. Can the Minister tell me if any aboriginal group is able to deliver the community wellness program on their own?
Committee Motion 23-13(5): To Establish A Child Advocate In The NWT Before Division
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1086
Committee Motion 23-13(5): To Establish A Child Advocate In The NWT Before Division
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1086
Ramsden
Well, 100 percent of the Brighter Futures and Building Healthy Communities funding flows directly to aboriginal groups and they are responsible for supporting, designing and delivering all of those programs, so those are certainly examples where they are very much involved. Thank you.
Committee Motion 23-13(5): To Establish A Child Advocate In The NWT Before Division
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1086
Committee Motion 23-13(5): To Establish A Child Advocate In The NWT Before Division
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1086
David Krutko Mackenzie Delta
I will try to ask this question again, put a little different slant on it. Is there any aboriginal group in any of the communities or municipalities that deliver the community wellness program by themselves?
Committee Motion 23-13(5): To Establish A Child Advocate In The NWT Before Division
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1086
Committee Motion 23-13(5): To Establish A Child Advocate In The NWT Before Division
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1086
Ramsden
Madam Chairperson, I am not sure how to answer the question, unless we are dealing with a different matter. In the Beaufort Delta area, the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation delivers 100 percent of its own programming in the Brighter Futures and Building Healthy Communities area, so that is an example that I can offer where they are exclusively involved in the delivery of that programming. Thank you.