Thank you, Mr. Chair. I too would like to welcome the Minister and the department here today. At the sake of not echoing the very same sentiments of my colleagues here, a lot of passion has gone into this bill. The Minister would definitely know that. The Minister himself, as a Regular Member, travelled to these very same communities in the 16th Assembly and took part in one of the major reports that is mentioned in the report and some of the compass headings that this committee has to use to navigate through what was pretty trying times for a number of our residents in the Northwest Territories.

I want to take just a brief note to point out that nowhere in this report that we did earlier is there mention, I believe, of the Auditor General report that was recently done, and there is probably a reason for that, because I believe we need to differentiate the Auditor General report on child and family services and the report that we refer to in our report as the 2010 report, which was done by the previous Assembly. There’s a reason for that.

The Auditor General of Canada report was more to do with the compliance with the act, in our humble opinion. This was about the fact that we weren’t following the law of the day, and a lot of the recommendations in there had to do with the government adhering and following the very legislation that it was compelled to follow. That’s a very distinct difference to what we refer to as a lot of the recommendations we saw in the 2010 report which talked about improvement to the process, improvement to services, improvement to the so-called different levels of activity which makes us a better tool, so to speak, with dealing with the most vulnerable in society, the ones that are in our care. I want to make that clear distinction between the two, is that even after we do this act and hopefully pass this act, the onus is still on the department to be in compliance with this new act, and that’s the challenge that I’m still going to be watching. As a Member, and I’m sure Members here as well, is that just because we’ve updated legislation, we still need to make sure that the department and everyone involved from the Minister all the way down to that caseworker at the ground level, we’ve got to follow this act. This is not an optional program. I want to make that perfectly clear.

Let’s talk a bit about why we’re here. We’re talking about Bill 47, and a lot of the changes that we have before us are procedural changes. We’re tightening up some of the processes. It’s interesting that just recently in the media the Truth and Reconciliation Committee with Justice Murray Sinclair announced a very compelling statement the other day about the fact that this was cultural genocide, and it did make reference to the residential school effects of many of our Northerners affecting us and across Canada. But importantly, they talked about the foster plan and foster care across Canada, which we also are a part of. When I see and hear those types of compelling words, cultural genocide, it does make me think that whatever we do here has a significant impact for many of our children, and many of the children that are in care are First Nations. We’ve got to be very, very careful that we do not get lumped into this area because, by de facto, we are. So, everything we do, we have to, I guess, that degree of acumen we’ve got to bring to the table to make sure that we are improving that so that we are moving forward as a society against some of the atrocities that governments have done in the past which affected even some of the people in this room. I just wanted to make that also clear.

It’s unfortunate that it’s taken five years from the 2010 report from the previous Assembly that has now brought a lot of these amendments to Bill 47, and really, yes, we did strengthen a lot of areas up. It’s not all doom and gloom. We did tighten up a lot of the processes. But what we’ve heard many times on the ground in a lot of the communities that we serviced, and one of the quotes that we had here in our report and if I may just for a second indulge, is that one long-time foster parent said, “When I look around at what services are available, I see nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing.” Four times. I wish I could say that was the only time we heard that comment, but it wasn’t. We heard this time and time again. A lot of our communities do not have enough caseworkers. We don’t have enough social workers. I think that we really have to put a lot of thought behind when we’re doing our business plans, our operational business plan, and I know the Minister of Finance is listening here. We’ve got to think about this. This is something to which we’ve heard time and time again. We need more boots on the ground; we need more help in the smaller communities; and I think we definitely need to hear the people, because they were telling us loud and clear.

Now, you did hear the concept of kinship care. Relatively, probably, a new term, but really the principles are very simple. Keep children in the family. Keep children in the community. That’s the definition, and do so in a way that really, a lot of the areas around the temporary service agreements where you need to get consent of the parents involved tend to be problematic. We want to get these children in a safe environment as soon as we can, and so there is opportunity here. We heard that. Not part of the scope of this bill but, quite frankly, something that we can do and we should do, and we should not wait five years to do it. We’re going to challenge the department to come up with ways to work within the temporary service agreement, de facto to which we can get these children into custody and care within the family as soon as we can. But more importantly, let’s make sure that these grandparents, these grand-uncles and aunts are able to get the same type of financial help at the same time. We can’t expect these people to do it for nothing. We’re partners in this. We’re part of that triangle of care, and if we can’t do that then there’s a problem. It’s just the wish and will of committee to bring that forward to the department and say, “We’ve got to fix it.”

I do want to comment, though, the fact that we’re extending the youth services to age 23. I think that was well received by many people and I want to commend it.

You also heard the issue of the mediation. Now, I can understand the fact of mandatory mediation or trying to get that type or level of mediation in all communities. I recognize there is a huge cost involved. I understand wholeheartedly. However, we heard time and time again, we need to look at improving that. I don’t have the magic bullet, but I know you’ve got a department. Through you, Mr. Chair, I know that the Minister has a department of able-bodied, very smart people in these departments. We’ve got to figure out a way. We’ve got to find a hybrid.

Last, but not least, I want to talk about the foster families themselves. These are the people who open up their homes across the Northwest Territories. We had the opportunity to speak to numerous foster families that came forward and shared their stories and shared their hardships and shared some of the struggles they have, but more importantly, one common theme that I heard time and time again is that, “We need help. We need a break.” “I’ve got a family of my own,” someone said, “but you know what? I’m looking after two or three foster kids, but we need a break. Mom and Dad need a break.” We have no tools for Mom and Dad to have a break. There are no respite-type programs. I echo that loud and clear. We need to figure out a way to help out these foster families.

Some of the recommendations and suggestions are that we have an annual summer camp and some of them are scattered throughout the Northwest Territories. One of them here is just north of Yellowknife, and that summer camp is a great program. These children get together; they build bonds; they build relationships; they’ve got caring circles. I’ve attended some of their engagements and these are some great kids, but we do that once a year, once a summer. Why can’t we do it at Christmastime? Why can’t we do it at Easter break? Why can’t we do it other times of the year? Let’s give these foster families some respite care. Let’s give them a little bit of a break so they can tend maybe to their own children or, better yet, so that they can tend to themselves. Foster families need vacations too. They need a break. We owe it to them. We’re partners in this.

So I do want to commend the department. We did make some huge strides in child and family services, but as I said and I started off at the beginning, this does not talk about the compliance to the act, which the Auditor General of Canada has clearly pointed out. We need to do better in compliance. I know in my own heart that the department is listening, and I know the Minister is committed to making sure that compliance is on the radar and will be followed to the letter. I’m hoping that’s indeed the case.

So again, in closing, I appreciate the opportunity to speak to this. I want to thank my colleagues as well. It was a very trying couple of weeks on the road. Most of my colleagues were ill. Some of them had to suffer through colds, flus, and they persevered, through snow storms and everything, uphill both ways, wearing their rubber boots. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, department.