Just a comment there. Again, it goes back to the measurements of the reporting and how these are crucial in the small communities with the appropriate organizations. The Auditor General has made a scathing report on this section here, also, in terms of his findings. It’s so needed

when you have children involved in the small communities. Of the thousands of children that are apprehended in the Northwest Territories, 95 percent are Aboriginal. I look, I guess, to see how these four indicators are going to improve the system in the communities with the people who are doing the work and see how we could eliminate a lot of heartaches that don’t need to be there. Those are my comments.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. To the motion. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. With respect to recommendation number six, I agree that all these indicators obviously require more improvement and improved monitoring. I would be happy to sit down with the Standing Committee on Social Programs to identify some appropriate formats and timing that would work for them and the department so that we can continue to provide these updates.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. To the motion.

Question has been called. Motion is carried.

---Carried

Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a series of motions as well.

I move that the Department of Health and Social Services begin immediately and in earnest to correct deficiencies in child and family services; and further, improvements must not be delayed until governance reforms have taken place as reforms may take until the end of the 17th Assembly or longer to complete. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The motion is in order. To the motion. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just briefly, the committee’s desire here is to make sure, knowing that the Health and Social Services department is looking at changes in governance within our health and social services authorities, knowing that, the committee is very concerned that we don’t wait to make the required changes in the child and family services division and in the services we provide.

Certainly the two major reports that have been done previously, in 2000 and in 2010, had quite a few recommendations and not much happened. So we don’t want that to happen again. This is a

serious situation where we have children at risk and committee is quite concerned that we not see a delay in any changes in implementation to activities to fill in the problems and the gaps that we have seen through this report. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. To the motion. Mr. Yakeleya.

Mr. Chair, I look forward to the department correcting these deficiencies as noted by the Auditor General. I know the department also made some responses to the deficiencies, and I’m hoping that “immediately” means right now, today, not next week or the week after.

There are deficiencies, as noted by the Auditor General, in the child and family services within this department here. There are some deficiencies that need to be corrected right now; others, as Ms. Bisaro has noted, we don’t want to wait for the whole bag of deficiencies to be looked at and corrected until we have an excuse for the governance reform. I don’t know what that reform, the interpretation of the reform that’s taking place. That just seems to be a stalling tactic, or wait until the end of the 17th . Then it will be two Assemblies

who don’t do anything.

These are the promises of the 16th Assembly, which

we didn’t do very much, if anything. Now, I’m hoping that these improvements, as Ms. Bisaro noted, will not be delayed, otherwise we’re just talking in the wind here and not making any sense.

In the 16th we met with people in the communities.

That cost a lot of money and we don’t really have much to show for it, yet we’re still talking about this stuff. It’s crazy.

I guess that’s why I’m looking for some movement and I’m hoping that…(inaudible)…says we have to make some significant improvements here. I’m just hoping that this isn’t taken as a delay tactic, waiting for something else to happen before we can make any type of significant changes in the reform system. In the meantime, families in our communities in the North have to deal with the deficiencies. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. To the motion. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. With respect to immediately taking some actions, I agree with recommendation number seven. To that end, I’ve already committed to developing a new accountability framework for child and family service programs, which will be done in July.

In addition to that, steps have already been taken to appoint CEOs as assistant directors under the act, and new, more rigorous quarterly reporting requirements will take effect in the fall. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. To the motion.

Question has been called. The motion is carried.

---Carried

Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that the Department of Health and Social Services develop a communication plan pertaining specifically to child and family services so that stakeholders and the public are informed about completed actions, upcoming changes and anticipated timelines. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The motion is in order. To the motion. Ms. Bisaro.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Just briefly, this is pretty much self-explanatory, but it is important that the public know what’s going on. It is important that anybody involved in the child and family services system be aware of actions that have been taken and what changes the department is contemplating and also that they be given an opportunity to comment on those.

One of the things that we determined in the 16th Assembly when we did our report was that people really didn’t feel they knew what was going on within the child and family services system, so this communication plan is very important. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. To the motion. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The action plan will be public and it will include details on actions as well as providing some time frames. Performance reporting will also be public for anybody who wants to look at it. I can commit to updating the action plan with progress reports on a regular basis. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. To the motion. Mr. Yakeleya.

From the action plan and the communication plan, I’m hoping that the Minister would look at all forms of communication and methods out there, CKLB or radio, not just a website. When you look at some of the stats in the Sahtu region, not all households in the communities are hooked up to the Internet. So, we don’t have everybody going to the website and English is not always their first language. There’s a high percentage of our people. So I guess in that sense, the target area, it’s the older people, then it has to

be done in Dene Kede and do it in English there. So the communication plan needs to be constructed so that the grandparents know what’s happening if their children are in the care of a social worker or whatever. They know their rights, they know what they’re entitled to and that the communication plan is evaluated to say are we effective. So I wanted to mention that to the Minister.