Thank you, Mr. Chair. This was an issue that came up in the 16th Assembly and I think additional money was put in so that it established committees throughout the Northwest Territories. I know the department has been eager to establish these starting late in the 16th Assembly and certainly into the beginning of
the 17th Assembly, but at the end of the day we
don’t have any and there seems to be very little interest or uptake at the community level.
In principle, by intent, the reason these committees were put into the act is absolutely sound, but there’s obviously a disconnect somewhere in our inability to convince or encourage people to be involved. We have heard from some of the communities what some of the barriers are. Chief, council members and community members are
concerned about the financial legal requirements that communities may have to undertake. Many people are related in smaller communities and potential conflicts of interest exist. We have continual turnover in electoral leadership impacting communities’ priority areas and investments, limited personal and community knowledge and understanding of the current child and family services system. People are nervous and that seems to be the feedback that we’re getting.
I think people believe in the intent but don’t necessarily believe in the structure. I think it’s time that all of us sat down and had a conversation about how do we get back to the intent – maybe the model we’ve chosen is not appropriate – and how do we get back to where we wanted to be, which is that communities have involvement in ensuring that children from their communities stay in their communities as far as is reasonable and safe to do so. Maybe we should start looking at interagency committees as one option.
I think it’s time that we need to rethink this particular structure that we’ve created by legislation because it does not seem to be meeting the need, although the intent is sound. I’d like to get back to the intent and find a new model that works.