Not all grandparents who take children are going to run into financial difficulties, but where they do run into financial difficulties they are able to go to the Department of Education, Culture and Employment and income support. We do recognize that addressing the issue that the Member is talking about, those individuals who have not gone to child and family services but are taking care of their grandchildren and they do need some supports, it’s going to take an interdepartmental approach involving integrated case management. It’s going to take a number of departments, because the issues are crossing a number of departments, Education, Culture and Employment and income support, the NWT Housing Corporation with public housing, as well as the Department of Health and Social Services under child protection.

The department’s position has been that when the director decides to place an at-risk child with their grandparents, the grandparents do receive foster care payments. They do get money. However, the department does not pay for foster care payments when the decision to place a child with their grandparent was actually the family’s decision. They never came to child and family services. The department has always been working collaboratively with other departments to resolve complex matters requiring an integrated approach. A fully integrated approach is somewhat challenged by the NWT Housing Corporation policy that considers foster care payments as income when calculating eligibility for public housing, and Revenue Canada does not consider foster care payments as income for tax purposes. We are discussing these between the three departments, trying to find resolution and trying to break down the silos and the barriers to support our families here in the Northwest Territories. We are doing a number of things to find a way.