Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Before I begin I would like to thank my colleagues on the Social Programs committee, the research staff of the Legislative Assembly, the individual professional members we had travelling with us, the members from the Department of Health and Social Services who did travel along with us, and last of all a big thank you to those people who did come forward to make their presentations.
At times it was tough for the individuals, but even tough for ourselves, having to sit there and listen to some of the experiences these individuals had with
the area of child apprehension or child custody issues and the effects it has had on especially the mothers and the loss of their children and, more importantly, the loss of the culture and values because of some of their experiences.
Mr. Chairman, I think this is something that, one of the things that as a Member who served here for some four terms, probably one of the higher achievements that I was able to take part of knowing that when this legislation first came forward in the 13th Assembly, the intention back
then was to deal with exactly what we have been confronted with today and the whole notion at that time was because we were one Territory, we had some 58 communities that we represented, more importantly, that we had basically a majority of aboriginal Members in this House which basically were sold on the idea of community involvement and responsibilities by way of establishing a child and family services committee in all of our communities and allow the community input into the process and be able to resolve those issues at the community level, more importantly, find community solutions to these social and challenges that we face in a lot of our communities, more importantly, the economic and social conditions that most communities have to struggle with, regardless if it’s employment, high unemployment, and more importantly, the lack of programs and services. I think that we do have to take a close look at how these recommendations were formatted, but more importantly, for the Department of Health and Social Services to assist them in ensuring that when they implement these recommendations that they are doable, that they are basically achievable.
There is going to be some financial expenditures to implementing this, but what is the cost of not doing it, realizing we already spend in the range of $12 million and we have some 600 children in care in our system in one way or the other. I think we have to be able to realize what effect this has had on the children that find themselves in the system by way of having to be put in the foster care programs, regardless of their placement, regardless of where they are placed.
I think it is important to realize that this legislation, since it came into effect in 1995, that a review has taken place and that the numbers have drastically increased over the period of this program and the number of children that are receiving services in this care is well over a thousand. One of the gaps that we definitely identified is those children between the age of 16 to 18 finding themselves in a grey area of who really has responsibility for those children and exactly how do we work with those children and assist those children that may not find themselves back with their parents and might find themselves in a different community or also ensuring that they do have the means that they can take care of themselves or be able to have access
to services that will assist them and be able to take care of themselves. Again, that is something that I feel we have touched on. I think that we have to show the rest of Canada that we are open to suggestions, recommendations, and realize that we are not alone in this problem. It is a national problem.
There are more children in foster care in Canada today than there were children in care in the residential schools. That is the scary phenomena that we face as Canadians, but more importantly, here in the Northwest Territories. One thing people don’t realize is there is a direct correlation between foster care, residential school and exactly the history that a lot of these children are talking about. You are talking families that go back decades in regards to being put in a type of care. In the region I represent, in the community of Fort McPherson, the first Indian residential school was opened in 1898. That is over 110 years ago. Also, in other communities, in regards to Fort Providence it was 1867, and yet we hear stories from our parents, our grandparents and now we are going to hear it from our children and our grandchildren of this phenomena that we talk about in regards to the best interests of the child. At the experience we face today in regards to the residential school phenomena, that effect does not go away simply from one generation to the next, to the next. Again, the only way we will break that cycle is we have to do things differently than we have done in the past, find solutions to work with the people, the families, the children, the communities to find workable solutions to our problems.
I would also like to correlate one of the things that doesn’t really spell out in the agreement, and I know a couple of my colleagues touched on it, is the area of poverty. A lot of these families are living well below the poverty line in Canada or, for that matter, looking at it as a third world country. Statistics have shown us that the majority of aboriginal people in the Northwest Territories have an income well below $18,000 per year and yet the majority of the other population, the non-aboriginal population, is $54,000. Even that in regards to our communities, we have large pockets of individuals that I have mentioned in regards to statistics that show that almost 45 percent of our people in the communities that I represent of Aklavik and in Fort McPherson, which is basically 43 percent make less than $30,000 a year. That is over half of our households in our communities. If the people are struggling just to make ends meet and struggling to provide for their children, their family and try to keep a roof over their head with that type of income, we have to do a better job of supporting the systems that we have and making sure they are really assisting those families, children and, more importantly, the communities to find ways of improving the quality of life for those children in our
communities, the family members who are basically struggling, more importantly, find community solutions to our problems.
Again, in the area of child and family services, one of the areas I know a lot of my colleagues touched on is the area of child and family services committees in communities. Fort McPherson is one of the areas that I have been pushing for the last number of years to take advantage of that section of the legislation, but again it was a struggle to where we are today to realizing that there is a cost associated with putting these committees, yes, but what is the cost of not allowing or involving our communities and community members to assist us in making those tough decisions, finding solutions at the community level and ensuring that the community is finding solutions to their problems and not to leave that decision to someone else in a faraway office or in a different setting outside the home communities. Let’s not continue to repeat the cycle of knowing what’s best, but find solutions to ensuring that our children are protected and their best interest are met.
In closing I’d like to offer up that I think it is important that all Members of this House speak on this issue, regardless whether it’s Cabinet Ministers or Regular Members. I think this issue is essential to the well-being of the North as a whole.