Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think that we can all agree that children have a fundamental right to be safe and receive loving care and support. Children also have the right to live in an environment that enables them to succeed in life. Parents have responsibility for raising their children and ensuring these rights are respected. Unfortunately, in the North and across this country there are cases of child maltreatment, neglect and abuse. The NWT Child and Family Services Act was put in place to ensure procedures are in place to both protect the safety and well-being of children and to provide services to families who need help.

Mr. Speaker, our act is a unique piece of legislation that was designed after many years of consultation, to emphasize the value of cultural and spiritual beliefs, the importance of immediate and extended family and the value of community participation. It is one of a kind made-in-the-North legislation. In fact, the NWT Child and Family Services Act is the only legislation in Canada that is inclusive of community participation in decision-making and, above all, this act was designed by the 13th Assembly to ensure

that the best interests of the children are respected.

Mr. Speaker, I do appreciate that the act is more than 10 years old. Practice and legislation must be kept current to meet the needs of the people we represent and I also appreciate that there is a concern with the existing legislative framework and some of these applications and implementation.

Mr. Speaker, I would hope that the work of the committee deals on the efforts of many communities, families, parents and child protection workers to improve the lives of the children. Their efforts can be seen in our apprehension rates, which have gone down by 8.6 percent over the last three years, and by the number of children receiving services while in the care of their parents and families, which has been going up. There are more children, at least 52 percent of children, who are being taken care of by extended family. In fact, in many places in our Territory, plan of care committees involve all of the extended family of children in care.

Mr. Speaker, I have in my possession, I happened to run into a document here called, it’s a report on matters related to Family and Social Services Act, which was tabled on May 17th , 2007. It was chaired

by Ms. Sandy Lee. Membership of the committee included a Mr. Yakeleya, Mr. Braden, Mr. Robert C. McLeod, Mr. Jackson Lafferty and Mr. Calvin Pokiak. That was the last review. It was a clause that was reviewed. It was a bill that passed to allow a review. It put an obligation on the child protection workers and Department of Social Services to make sure that they appear before court within 72 hours to justify why a child should be in care. In reviewing that bill we heard many of the concerns that the Members are raising and it is a fine piece of work, I must say, and I hope that…I have had a chance to re-read it and there were lots of good recommendations made and I am sure that this work the committee and the Members are suggesting will build not only on this work, but many other reviews that were done before.

Mr. Speaker, I believe that whatever we do in this House it must always be done to protect children and ensure that they can grow up to be healthy parents. I would like to just give my commitment to the Members to work with the committee, and the Department of Health and Social Services and myself are ready and willing to provide any

assistance that the committee may require. I look forward to working together on this most important work that we have for this Legislature, which is, first and foremost, protection of the best interests of our children.

So, Mr. Speaker, in closing, I’d like to just say that as is the normal procedure in this House, as this motion is a recommendation to this government, the Cabinet will be abstaining from the vote. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.