This is page numbers 6391 – 6418 of the Hansard for the 17th Assembly, 5th Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was services.

Topics

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the Members’ comments and suggestions. I know that they’ve worked hard on this and I know a couple of the Members were around in the 16th Assembly when that review was done. So they’ve been involved in this, as I have, for an extended period of time.

I do agree with Member Bisaro that working together, the work we’ve done to find a way to make this bill a better bill than when we brought it forward for first and second reading has been rewarding, and I really appreciate the amount of effort and time put in by committee.

The committee and Members have talked about a number of things. Mediation, as one example, has come up in almost everybody’s opening comments, and this is something that we’re absolutely committed to within the new delivery of child and family services. In fact, we want everybody to go through alternative measures, which can and often will actually include mediation. We don’t want our families going to court if we can in any way, shape or form avoid that from happening.

The suggestions around kinship care are something that is the premise of Building Stronger Families. We want to support families because we recognize that children do their best and are in a better place if we can help them stay within their families. That’s the whole premise for Building Stronger Families. I’ve got to say there have been a lot of suggestions of things that may be missing from the bill, but we’ve got to remember that the bill is only part of the move to improve child and family services here in the Northwest Territories. We have Building Stronger Families, which is our action plan, which is a fundamental change in approach in how we provide child and family services. The ultimate goal of Building Stronger Families is to keep children and families together and build upon the strengths to support families to raise their children in healthy, loving environments. I’ll say it again, the bill itself is an important piece of making the improvements, but it’s not alone.

I just want to be clear that we’re also… It’s not like we’re not doing anything and we’re waiting for the bill. Within Building Stronger Families there are basically three pillars that we’re working on. That’s program and administration management, which goes to some of the points that the Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny, brought up, risk and management quality assurance, but there’s also service delivery. We’ve made significant progress in the last 18 months. I’ve been the Minister for 18 months, and when I came into the department I talked to the department and one of the priorities that I brought forward with me, based on my experiences with committee and the 16th Assembly, was we’ve got to start making improvements in this particular area.

So, under Building Stronger Families we’ve got program administration management. We’ve already made huge changes. The assistant directors have been delegating in seven health and social service authorities. They have monthly teleconferences between the director of social programs and the directors of child and family services, and they continue to provide a forum for continuous communication on activities associated with the action plan. Bill 47 is before you, and thank you so much for your input on that.

The Child Welfare League…and this goes to Mr. Dolynny’s point about do we have enough people on the front line working. The Child Welfare League of Canada has completed the workload management study as of March 31st and this report provides initial insight to the factors that the authority staff feel impact their workload and will be used to help all of us, together, identify next steps in workload management, and we’re happy to bring that report and hopefully some Members of the Child Welfare League of Canada to committee to go through that information.

Risk management and quality assurance… The quality reporting tool and process has been fully implemented as of April 1, 2015. The annual audit cycle of child and family services files at the authority level began in April 2015.

Audit teams have developed and implemented common audit tools and reporting templates so that we can get the information we all need to make informed decisions.

We’ve updated different sections in the procedures manual. In fact, the procedures manual is pretty much done and is going to be going live early this month and we will begin training with our front-line professionals. We’ve done a jurisdictional scan of child protection supervisor training so that we can ensure that our people are getting the best training on this new model, this fundamentally changed model of families first.

With respect to service delivery and the child protection practice, the adaptation teams for the first three structured decision-making tools have moved forward and we’ve got co-chairs by the authorities and directors of social programs. We’re moving forward with the complete adaptation of those structured decision-making models and we’re making good progress.

This will take some time to do this process and we have been through that with committee, but all of these together are going to make a system that is fundamentally different, which brings us to the concern that Ms. Bisaro raised, which I think is absolutely valid and we’ve seen it everywhere we go. There’s a heck of a lot of scepticism out there. The history is not good. I heard the scepticism myself. I’ve heard a lot of people talking about this. Our past practices around child and family services have been leaving the same kind of legacy that residential school has done. Unfortunately, this is real and we need to find some way to break down the stigma that has been created around child and family services, recognizing this new approach that we’re taking with the focus on the families and helping families where they need it so that they can raise their children the way that I think we all want to raise our children.

I think we’re all going to have to work together to start breaking down the stigma that the government is trying to do what it’s doing, but I’m going to count on MLAs to work with us, as well, to help break down the stigma and talk about some of the positive things we’re doing around Building Stronger Families in the new approaches.

I’ll continue for at least as long as I’m around to work with leaders to engage them and help them understand this new fundamental approach that we’re taking with child and family services. Hopefully, together, we can break down the stigma and help people have some faith, competence and trust in the system so that we can work with them so that they can be the families they – I know the families that are struggling – truly want to be.

In our new approach, we are absolutely incorporating cultural approaches and values. It won’t work if we don’t. I hear committee, and their suggestion I saw in the report to remove the child and family services committees in committee when we did our public review the other day, I committed to doing that if that was the wish of committee. So here today I’ll say that we are directing the department to begin the work to remove those committees from the legislation. But on top of that, we want to make sure there is something in there that allows us to have a relationship with Aboriginal governments and bodies. So we will explore, as committee has suggested, other alternatives and we will certainly be looking for committee’s suggestions. I have heard a number of them today, so we truly appreciate that.

I will also say, with respect some of the history on this, we are happy to receive a copy of the Truth and Reconciliation Report and the department did review a number of recommendations that were included in that report around child welfare. We found that the recommendations within that report around child welfare are quite consistent with the new direction that we’re taking with child and family services, so we will be able to build upon that as another piece of evidence that we truly have to change the direction in which we are providing child and family services.

In closing, I don’t know if I have hit all your points, but I do appreciate your comments. We are moving forward. This act is just a part of the change in direction. Building Stronger Families is the big piece and we are moving forward with it with a new way of doing business here, recognizing the realities that we face here in the Northwest Territories.

I’ll just close with a little bit more on foster families, which is related but not specifically within this legislation. I do appreciate the Members Dolynny and Moses who suggested respite and a foster kids’ support group. Those are interesting ideas and I am going to ask the department to explore those a little bit further to see what options or how we can actually find a way to do some of these things. It is truly an interesting idea. But also at the same time, I want to highlight a couple of the things that we have done in the last little while that I think are really going to help foster families. I want to really applaud Minister R.C. McLeod and the Housing Corporation for their review of how they calculate income and the fact that they are no longer going to include foster care payments as income, which I think is massive. It is absolutely a huge improvement and it is going to help those families that are going above and beyond to foster. I think we all owe them a big round of applause for that one. I think it was a great move and I am excited that they have done that.

The other thing that I think is huge for the foster families that we are just getting really close to finalizing is we are almost ready to implement liability insurance for foster families, which I think is absolutely huge as well. I think it is something that the foster families have been asking for. We are this close. I believe we are going to have that done shortly and I am excited by that. Between the housing and this particular liability, I think we have addressed a number of the issues.

We have a challenge, and I am not sure whether it is as a result of this scepticism or the stigma that exists around child and family services, but we do have a problem getting people in as foster parents. We already have a process and there has been a lot of talk that we need to make sure that grandparents or family members can get some resources. They can. They can become foster parents. We have an expedited process. We can help them become foster parents so that we can keep the kids in there and they can be compensated. They do have to go through the system. The children have to be accessing the system, whether it is voluntary or involuntary. But we can already do it. We just need to make sure that people understand how.

So, we are moving in the right direction. I think there are huge improvements coming over the next couple of years as we go through this differential sort of response process and create a real focus on families. The staff are excited by this as well. I have to say that I have talked to a number of staff and they actually are really excited about this new differential response. I’ve seen people, who I met six years ago when we were doing the review and were pretty pessimistic, who are now quite positive and happy and excited by this new direction.

So, I am going to stop. I believe I’ve answered all the questions and I am happy to answer any questions as we go clause by clause.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Committee is agreed we are finished general comments and we will go clause by clause to the bill?

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Is committee agreed that we will look at the clauses in groups of five?

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

I will defer the bill number and title until we consider the clauses. This bill has a schedule. We’ll defer the consideration of clauses and deal with the schedule first. Turn to page 14, schedule. Agreed?

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Now we’ll consider the clauses. Turn to page 1. Clauses 1 to 5. Ms. Bisaro.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to make a comment here about a change that committee wanted to bring forward. I wanted to just explain that this amendment did not change the bill, and what it was that committee wished to highlight.

The amendment that committee brought forward was to allow for the court to order mediation. It would have a family or someone could apply to the court for an order directing that mediation or some other mechanism could occur. The amendment also directed that the costs of the mediation or the mechanism would be paid by the director of child and family services.

Committee didn’t wish to bring this motion to the floor. I think committee kind of understood where the department was coming from, but I felt it important to mention that we felt strongly enough to make an amendment. We felt strongly enough about mediation and the need for it to make an amendment in our clause-by-clause review. I can understand the department’s position. Generally, by the time it gets to court, mediation has already been offered and maybe refused, and their position was that you can’t make somebody mediate if they’re not willing to. There was a concern on the part of the department about the costs that would be involved, unanticipated costs that they hadn’t considered when they were developing the bill. A motion was made to amend it and it was not concurred with by the Minister, so that part of the bill did not change.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. We’re on clauses 1 to 5.

---Clauses 1 through 5 inclusive approved

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Clauses 6 to 10.

---Clauses 6 through 10 inclusive approved

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Clauses 11 to 15.

---Clauses 11 through 15 inclusive approved

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Clauses 16 to 20.

---Clauses 16 through 20 inclusive approved

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Clauses 21 to 23.

---Clauses 21 through 23 inclusive approved

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

To the bill as a whole.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Does committee agree that Bill 47, An Act to Amend the Child and Family Services Act, is now ready for third reading?

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Bill 47 is now deemed ready for third reading.

Next I’ll go to Mr. Moses.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a committee motion. I move that the Government of the Northwest Territories provide a comprehensive response to this report within 120 days.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Moses. The motion is being distributed. The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. Moses.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just for clarity, the committee motion that I am bringing in today, we did read in our report into the House earlier, got it read for Committee of the Whole, and we haven’t dealt with that report yet but I just wanted to bring the committee motion forward now to address that committee would like a response in 120 days to that report.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Moses. To the motion.

Some Hon. Members

Question.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Question has been called. The motion is carried.

---Carried

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Thank you, witnesses. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses out of the Chamber.

I’ll go to Ms. Bisaro. What is the wish of the committee?