The bill as a whole.

Does committee agree that Bill 65, An Act to Amend the Safety Act, is ready for third reading?

Bill 65 is now ready for third reading. Thank you, witnesses. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses out of the room. Thank you, Mr. Lafferty.

Thank you, committee. The last bill before us today is Bill 68, An Act to Amend the Child and Family Services Act, No. 2. We’ll begin by going to the Minister responsible. Minister Abernethy, do you have opening comments?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m pleased to be here to discuss Bill 68, An Act to Amend the Child and Family Services Act, No. 2. Bill 68 proposes to remove the child and family services committees from the act. These amendments were initiated by a recommendation made by the Standing Committee on Social Programs in their Committee Report 18-17(5), Report on the Review of Bill 47, An Act to Amend the Child and Family Services Act, where the Department of Health and Social Services was encouraged to act immediately and introduce a bill to remove all provisions pertaining to the child and family services committees.

Before moving forward with the bill, the department carefully reviewed the legislation to ensure no other provisions would be unduly affected. Important processes and services such as an early intervention, plan of care committees and agreements, and the future inclusion of mediation will continue under the act. Child and family services committees were designed as a way to involve communities in child protection matters; however, despite many efforts, child and family services committees could not be successfully established in the Northwest Territories. Removing the child and family services committees from the act provides the department with an opportunity to strengthen its focus on involving communities through the use of existing provisions such as through the inclusion of additional members on the plan of care committee or working in partnerships with community government bodies or Aboriginal governments.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the Standing Committee on Social Programs for their contribution to this bill, and I would be pleased to answer any questions that committee may have.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Mr. Abernethy, do you have witnesses to bring into the Chamber?

Yes, I do.

Agreed?

Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber.

Mr. Abernethy, could you introduce your witnesses, please.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. On my left is Cherie Jarock, who is legislative counsel, and on my right is Debbie DeLancey, deputy minister, Department of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Committee, we’ll open up general comments on Bill 68. Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to thank the Minister and the department for working very fast on a recommendation from committee in regards to moving the child and family services committees.

This was a pretty long bill that’s been in the Legislative Assembly for many years and many governments, and when committee took it out and heard from the communities, there was concern that we were putting more responsibilities on the CFS committee and the communities. We also heard that there was only one that was actually working and that actually stopped all together, and I know people were concerned in terms of remuneration or compensation for members on the child and family services committees. They thought that there should have been something put forward. But like I said, there was only one community that had a successful working committee at one time but had stopped all together.

Just listening from the communities and listening from some of the front-line staff as well as some of the community leaders, standing committee thought it would be a good recommendation to remove all child and family services committees from this bill and just appreciate the work that the department went to and removed them. Just looking through the bill, there were a lot of areas that it needed to be removed from.

I just wanted to make those comments.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. I’ll take that as general comments. I’ll go to Ms. Bisaro next.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. I’ll take those as general comments as well. Does committee agree we’ll go clause by clause?

There are a number of clauses, 15 clauses in total. We’ll go in groups of five.

Clauses 1 to 5.

---Clauses 1 through 15 inclusive approved

Does committee agree we have concluded Bill 68, An Act to Amend the Child and Family Services Act, No. 2?

The bill as a whole?