Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think it’s a very great day in terms of the child and family services system. As you heard from my colleagues, it has been a very long process getting to where we are today with the amendments that we made and some of the motions that we’re bringing forth after listening to our residents in the Northwest Territories.
I think what really sparked a lot of us moving forward but also work from our Regular Members and not just the standing committee was that the OAG report and all the findings that were in there that were very hard to, I guess you could say hard to take in or swallow. We needed to do something and that for too long supports were not there for our families, not there for our children and even supports where not there for folks who were providing support. I think we need to really address those gaps in services.
As you heard from my colleagues here, the history of the bill goes way back. I made mention 1977 there was a report and some of those recommendations that we are seeing out of that report way back than we are seeing today. I am glad that we have a government here and a Minister who is willing to make those changes and stand up with his staff.
I just want to highlight a few things that we heard while we were on the road. First of all, just the complexity of the voluntary service agreements, and that goes to the parenting skills and family and the social place that a family is in to actually make those kinds of agreements.
As we have heard, working with extended family and grandparents, kinship care was a big discussion in some of the communities. Really what we needed – and we have heard about it in the media – is our grandparents taking, I won’t say custody, but taking the responsibility to take care of our most vulnerable and not getting the financial services that they need to do that. Or even the essential services such as extra food or even clothing for the children. It does put a financial burden on our grandparents, some who are on pension or, in some cases, don’t even have a pension.
I won’t get into mediation. You’ve heard a little bit about that before. Temporary custody, some of the research behind the days for temporary custody I think served well, and we had a lot of really good response from our residents.
One big thing that we heard, especially in some of the smaller communities, was our approach to apprehensions, or our approach to foster care and that. As a government we really need to work with some of our Aboriginal groups to what they call as Dene law. Look at our cultural approaches, our traditions, and looking at the values. When you look at the values, it was discussed from one of our former chiefs talking about putting love into it, caring and sharing, Aboriginal values that have gone for so long. Rather than just apprehension we have to look at doing that not only for our children but our families as well.
Other issues that were brought up that weren’t really addressed in the bill but I think need to be taken into consideration were some of these frivolous complaints or allegations against foster families without proper investigations. Some foster families feel that they were targeted and really needed to be able to express their side of the story without having probably the best interest of the child at hand. The plan of care agreements was very important, that we needed those in place moving forward and I think that will be addressed in our new bill.
Also, just the supports for alternative options, which is in the new bill here as well. But when you go into communities like Deline, we heard that they don’t have the supports. They don’t have the counselling or the addictions support for families or for anybody who might be going through the system. As a result, one thing that is really evident is keeping the child not only in the home but in the community. If you don’t have those supports in the community then it really reflects hard on our families, especially the ones that want to continue to promote our culture, our traditions and our languages, and that was focused on.
We also heard that the Child and Family Services Act should also work very strongly with our Mental Health Action Plan. We got that from and I think this department has been very strong in creating some of these new initiatives in the course of this government and making sure that they work collaboratively together to see some very positive outcomes for our families, our residents and our communities across the Northwest Territories.
As I mentioned earlier, I think that we need to focus on keeping the child in the community and providing the supports for our families.
One really unique thing that was brought up was a foster kids’ support group. We have a lot of kids in foster care and I know that they go through a lot of difficult times, especially with mental health issues, and to have that kind of support group with like-minded people in the same state and same circumstance will be able to provide strong support for one another.
There was also talk about victim services coordinators’ support, not only support from them but supporting the victim service coordinator.
When we went and talked with the Tlicho Community Services Agency, we asked them about what services they had. They mentioned that they actually hired three new staff to address the needs that were in the Tlicho communities. They know what’s going on. They know that they need more resources. They know that there are barriers there and that they really needed to address those, and they did hire three new staff which, in my case, was a very proactive role.
Discussions about foster families, inspections, training, those need to be held in place. We did hear from some foster families who said their houses were never inspected. They never went through any training and they were very scared about if that’s the case, what’s happening with families who might be out there that aren’t as compassionate as they are.
I just want to share a quote from somebody we heard in one of the small communities. “We need a lot of help in the communities. The programs right now do not work. There is no support and there is no training.”
Further to that I would like to share another quote from one of the elders: “Child and family services is a very big responsibility for very important decisions that need to be made. It’s good to sit and talk together and we need to find answers together to make sure this works.”
I made a statement in the House last week that deals with respite care for children. I think that needs to be taken into consideration. We don’t want to put more stress on some of our foster families or even just our families. Outreach workers, transitional housing and the amount of caseload that workers have was very big. There was emphasis that the Department of Health and Social Services should work closely with our Education, Culture and Employment department to look at creating community school and community counsellors and looking at those. Also, a focus on the special needs of children, the special needs of families, creating safe houses. Also, putting a focus on parenting skills was another one that came to mind.
As with Bill 44, when we went into the communities outside the scope of this bill, we did hear a lot of concerns that dealt with justice, that dealt with health, housing and, of course, within the Department of Health and Social Services that showed that even though we focused on the two bills, there was a lot more that needed to be addressed in our communities. A lot of members of the communities were very happy that we made the time and sat down, and even the discussions after the meetings were done, sidebar discussions that we had with our residents that are affected by these two bills.
In closing, I would just like to thank all stakeholders, community members who came out and gave their input into this bill. Of course, I’d like to thank the department, their staff for all the hard work that they did not only into Bill 47 but Bill 44 as well. I think we’ve come a long way in the consensus style government in looking at creating concurrent to the motions that the standing committee brought forward shows that the department is willing to make the best bill possible.
Lastly, I would just like to thank committee. Taking two significant bills on the road was a challenge, but the effort and commitment and dedication that we had towards that, you guys all did a great job. Specifically, to our staff researcher and our clerks, our Law Clerks’ and our staff clerks’ behind-the-scenes work to make sure that this went smoothly. Once again, to all Members who helped us get these bills and public hearings together in the communities, I appreciate your work.
As I said, as we have been working in the past, Bill 44, 47, all the amendments, all the collaborative work we’ve been doing, we look forward to making future bills the best bills they can be; and I know the Minister knows what I’m referring to, and that’s the Mental Health Act. With that, I’d just like to thank the Minister.