Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The last time I talked to some foster parents here in Yellowknife, the rates were still sitting around $24 a day for a child that did not have any special needs. Might I suggest, for the record today, that that is not enough money. When you consider how much it costs to feed a child and the cost of living in the North and everything else, I just don't think that that's adequate. I think that that goes contrary to the priority that we put on children who are in care. I think that monetary figure right there says a lot, and it doesn't say a lot of good.
I have some constituents in my riding; I'll give you a scenario. A fairly young grandmother with a grandchild, the mother of the child troubled and quite often requiring intervention on the part of the grandmother to care for the child. No remuneration available. But when it comes down to choices between staying home and a grandchild and going to their place of employment where they're gainfully employed, then they would be forced to give up their employment basically to take care of their grandchild. Now, I have a problem with extended family or grandparents not being the first line of consideration if they're appropriate. Now, we know there's been some really bad incidents that have occurred even in extended families. There have been some issues that have drawn national attention. But where the grandparents would qualify to be foster parents and would be good foster parents, I think that they should be the first choice and I don't think they should necessarily have to do it for nothing, especially in the case where the grandparent may be a single parent as well and does not have another household income to fall back on.
Right now this is how it goes: they feel that their grandchild is at risk because of activities, attention or lack of attention that the grandchild is getting. They intervene. In order to get Social Services involved, they basically have to forfeit the care of that grandchild. That's a very hard thing for a grandparent to do, to say, oh, could you please go by my grown son or daughter's house and pick up their child because they're partying and I feel my grandchild is in an unsafe and compromised position? That's a hard phone call to make. I'll tell you, when Social Services apprehends the child, that child doesn't get placed necessarily with a family member, it could be people who are complete strangers in the community and it just creates all kinds of problems. I'd like to get the Minister's response to the concept of relatives and families actually being compensated for taking care of even their grandchildren. I mean it's a much better solution than putting them with an absolute stranger. To be honest, sometimes grandparents do have to give up their livelihood in order to do that, in order to fulfil that role. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.