Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As I stated, this has been in our work plan. It has been
the objective of the department to set up more children and family services committees. This issue has come up before the CFSA recommendation and, as I stated to Member Abernethy, we have had difficulties setting that up. So the business plan said our goal is to have at least five.
Right now, and as the Members know, the only real possibility right now of setting up within this year is Fort McPherson, and that has been in the works for three years. It has been extremely difficult. It’s not just about the department going out and setting them out. We need the community support and community participation, we need the capacity building and such.
So I think what we need to do is we need to put in some financial resources and that’s the next level that we need to think about in light of the Standing Committee on Social Programs’ suggestion that we take a more interventionist role in that regard. It will take some money and we need to look at finding funds.