I would commit to giving very clear direction to the authorities that we would like to strike the child and family services committees. The Member and I had travelled together in the Sahtu and they were very, very clear on exactly what it is they wanted. They wanted to make sure that the children of their community continued to reside in their community. Their issue was that they felt that once a committee was put together, that they would be able to develop some foster homes within the community and place the kids within the foster homes, and that they had the knowledge and they knew their children. They were very unhappy that children were down south and in Yellowknife. At the time the Member and I travelled together, there were children from the Sahtu in BC, Alberta and in Yellowknife and the community was extremely unhappy. They had a fairly high incidence of child protection issues as well. The

three communities of Good Hope, Deline and Tulita all had approximately the same number of children receiving services.

The community did ask us to find a way, remove the barriers so that they could have a committee, and it appeared as though those barriers were there. If it means a legislative proposal to make an adjustment to the Child and Family Services Act quickly, then that’s what we want to do. Meanwhile, though, we want to be able to try to work with what we have to be able to try to put those committees in place.

I will make it a mandate of mine to go back to the authorities. If I have to travel back to the authorities again to have this discussion, then that’s what I wish to do. In addition, I will also commit to talking to the Joint Leadership Council, which is the chairs and the public administrators of the authorities, and put this item on the agenda to talk about ways of trying to create these committees.