Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, to the motion, I cannot support this motion. Yes, our first reaction is to get rid of the Minister. Mr. Speaker, moving forward, it seems like every time -- you know, I have dealt with the Minister many times. He has helped in a lot of situations with my constituents. We are in a crisis, Mr. Speaker. We can't blame solely the department. You know, it is very challenging. Many people here don't understand it because they don't come from a small community.
Mr. Speaker, in our small communities, we lack capacity. Even for taking over children, whether it is our own family, a lot of people aren't in that situation to take on more children. Not only that, they have to pass a criminal records check.
Mr. Speaker, it has been brought up in our committee that that is what we are struggling with. We have a lack of foster parents in our communities. You know, we can't force people to do that. We have to encourage them. We have to give them the resources. We can't force them, Mr. Speaker.
I think the Minister gets the idea that we have to put more focus on this. I know there has been a big turnover in his department. I think that they now have the resources to see this through.
Mr. Speaker, I know it is very challenging with this department that is so huge. It is the biggest department we have in this government. Maybe one thing we need to look at is whether we divide these two departments, have one department of health and one as social services. They have been amalgamated since 1995. Maybe we have to ask ourselves the question: is it working for our territory, for our children? We haven't looked at that.
Mr. Speaker, as we move forward, you know, there are many changes that we have to do in this department. I know the department has been struggling since we began our 18th Assembly with the recruitment of more doctors and nurses in our territory, which they have done.
It is pretty clear that we need to focus on our children. There is a lack of social workers. I believe strongly that what we need to do is bring back our social work program with Aurora College. It is pretty clear we don't have the capacity in this field right now, and we need more because I have seen in my riding, you know, the stress that our social workers face.
You know, many people may think that they enjoy taking children away from families, but to the fact, it is in the best interest of the child. We hear clearly in our committee that it is tough, but like I said, we need to encourage more families in our communities to be foster parents. We all want our children to stay within our communities. Mr. Speaker, I believe that, throughout the rest of our term, that is something that we need to work towards. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I won't be supporting this motion.