Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I always advocate for my constituents, and, when a constituent brings an issue to me, I always give them the benefit of the doubt, knowing that there are at least two sides to a story. I'll admit, when I've heard issues regarding my constituent's dealings with Child and Family Services, I used to think that perhaps the emotional aspect of the situation made the interaction seem worse than it was. Well, Mr. Speaker, I apologize for that. I've been set straight by the Office of the Auditor General of Canada, which just released its audit of the Child and Family Services. It's a follow-up audit to the one performed in 2014, which exposed such poor performance that it demanded to be revisited.

The Office of the Auditor General has concluded, Mr. Speaker, that things have actually gotten worse since 2014 and that it's "deeply concerned" by its findings. I tried to craft a statement with a level of outrage that this situation warrants, but I couldn't. There's no way to adequately express the anger that everyone should be feeling right now. We should all be ashamed, Mr. Speaker, for being part of a system that treats our most vulnerable in this way. If we can't put in the effort to get this right, then what? How bad is it, Mr. Speaker? Here are some of the findings. One-fifth of the time that someone contacted a regional health authority with concerns about the safety of a child, there was no response. Nine out of 10 times, the minimal level of contact with a parent and a child subject to a plan of care was not maintained. There were no systemic background checks on potential guardians. The list goes on and on and on.

After the last audit, the department's response was to introduce complex administrative changes into an already over-burdened and over-bureaucratic system instead of actually assessing whether or not it has the resources to do its job. Spoiler alert, Mr. Speaker, it doesn't. I also have to add, Mr. Speaker, that 95 percent of the children engaged in the system are Aboriginal. Is this what reconciliation looks like to this government, Mr. Speaker? I don't think that the Minister is insensitive to this issue or the departmental staff doesn't care about the children, but, after seeing what happened since 2014, I'm terrified about what the future holds. This is an unacceptable situation, and the Minister and all of us in this House need to act or move aside for those who will. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.