I have given my commitment to the Member that I will undertake to do that and work with the Member to get more.... It will be a
back-and-forth exercise on what the Member has in mind in terms of the objectives he wants to achieve. I think it should be noted that currently, as of May 2008, there are 625 children in care, and only 37 of them are in southern places. Over 420 are in their own homes with some kind of agreement — a voluntary service agreement, which is an agreement between Social Services and parents to improve the situation that has caused them to be in care or extended families.
I appreciate that we need community involvement. That’s why the legislation was changed in the last Assembly to allow Plan of Care committees to be set up in communities. That’s a vehicle for the communities and community people to be involved. If there are other community people who want to be involved, that’s always a good thing.
I think, though, we should also be mindful of the fact…. The fact we need to consider is that the top protection matters are highly legalized, still, in all of the provinces in Canada. The test is always the best interests of the child. It’s highly regulated and legalized, and there are step-by-steps these health professional workers must follow. They operate independently from even the legislators; we cannot interfere in that. But respecting that, obviously I am open to working with the Member to see how best we could incorporate the desires and interests on the part of the community to be involved in this process.