Thank you for the opportunity to speak to this motion.
During the speeches today and comments made by Members of this Assembly over the last couple of weeks, it appears that some Members don't believe that I am committed to the CFS file.
Mr. Speaker, I want to ensure Members that this is not the case. I am 100 percent committed to make the necessary systemic and principal changes to Child and Family Services that will move it from a system of apprehension to one focused on prevention, while at the same time protecting children at risk from harm.
During the 16th Assembly, I participated in a review of the Child and Family Services in the Northwest Territories. During that review, I travelled to every region and virtually every community to meet with residents, former CFS clients, families, as well as children at risk. It was an incredibly difficult tour, Mr. Speaker, and at every stop, we heard some of the most horrific stories of how the CFS System had torn apart families, ignored culture, and caused harm. These stories and visits had a profound impact on me, and I made a commitment to the people that I met that I would work hard to change the system. I have done that, and I will still keep doing that. In fact, I will continue to fight to improve this system, whether I am a Minister, a Member, and even after I leave this Assembly and enter the non-political life.
Mr. Speaker, I was proud when the committee came forward in 2010 with the 73 recommendations to improve our system here in the Northwest Territories. In 2011, I was re-elected and honoured to be selected as a Member of Executive Council. In 2013, the Premier announced the Cabinet shuffle, and I did something that nobody does. I asked for Health and Social Services. This is an area that I am incredibly passionate about and feel like I could make a positive difference on this file for the people of the Northwest Territories. On October 2013, I did become the Minister of Health and Social Services.
At pretty much my very first meeting, I asked the then-deputy Minister an important question: where are we with the 73 recommendations? The answer was nowhere. It wasn't a priority. Mr. Speaker, this made me incredibly unhappy, and I felt like the work that we had done had fallen on deaf ears. I immediately directed the department to start putting together a plan to address all of the recommendations. The end result is Building Stronger Families.
While doing the foundational work on Building Stronger Families, the CFS system was also being audited by the Auditor General of Canada. The timing of the Auditor General's audit, in my mind, was good, and we saw the findings, although, at the time, hard to hear, as helpful, and we were able to incorporate their 11 recommendations into the plan for the future of the Child and Family Services system.
In October 2014, Building Stronger Families was released as a five-year action plan to move us forward, and we are currently in year four of that rollout. I still strongly believe that Building Stronger Families is the right plan and that prevention-based system is the right thing to do. As a note, I have always been very clear that the first three or four years would have to be focused on building the foundation necessary to bring about change.
Also, as a note, the TRC report and its recommendations were released in June 2015. We were very happy that the recommendations in the TRC report related specifically to child welfare, which is consistent with the direction outlined in Building Stronger Families. It validated our hard work and reconfirmed the message that we heard from residents throughout the Northwest Territories.
Since the 2014 audit, many things have happened. In 2014, the Auditor General said that we needed to improve accountability, so we appointed and trained assistant directors in each region and made them accountable for Child and Family Services.
We were told to establish compliance audits and learn from them, so we did, and we are.
We were asked to report annually to the Legislative Assembly on the state of Child and Family Services, and we have done so for the past five years.
The Auditor General said that we needed tools to assess longer-term risks to children, so we introduced structured decision-making tools. The use of the structured decision-making tools is allowing us to become more strength-based and more family-oriented.
We were told to improve training, so we revised core training for child protection workers and introduced mandatory supervisor training, and in 2014, staff had access to about 10 training days. Now, staff participates up to 90 training days in communities as well as in classes.
We were told to update our standards and procedures manual. In 2015, the whole manual was rewritten, which included over 200 standards, forms, and tools that are being used to review and update, and they were introduced as part of the new standards.
We were told to develop a process to improve information sharing, so we created a monthly teleconference and annual meeting where key staff can share challenges and best practices, and we have extended that to all staff.
While the OAG made it clear that some of these changes introduced should have been implemented better, and, for the record, we agree, this audit neither reran the full audit from 2014 or passed negative judgement on what we have done. It is unfortunate, because these actions are the actions that form the key foundation pieces that make all of the profound changes that we need to happen possible.
Mr. Speaker, this brings us to where we are today. However, before I start discussing where we are today, I want to take an opportunity to apologize to the families and the children who have asked us to do better. We are going in the right direction, but we have not made the progress that I know you wanted to see. As a system, we will redouble our efforts and make Building Stronger Families a reality for you and for your families.
Mr. Speaker, the 2018 Auditor General's report on Child and Family Services was gut-wrenching for us all. I was deeply disappointed and concerned when I saw the OAG conclusion that there were areas where we were worse, specifically that we haven't managed risk as well as we should have.
Mr. Speaker, every person working on Child and Family Services, including me, wants to do everything possible to make sure that we are meeting our key responsibilities for the protection and well-being of children, young people, and families. The question that preoccupies me, and I know it is on the minds of all of our staff, is: are kids safe? I talked to our people on the frontlines, and I know how incredibly hard they work and that they are committed to making sure that our children are safe. It is our job to support them to do this, and we need to do it better.
The OAG report is a critical part of helping us do it better, and I thank them for their incredible work. Looking back at the 2014 Auditor General's report, we did implement every recommendation that we received, and through our Building Stronger Families plan, we brought in massive changes to the system, and we did this to provide better support to families and vulnerable children, who we serve.
I remain convinced that we are doing the right things, but it is equally clear that good intentions, ambitious plans, and hard work can only carry us so far. Where we have fallen short as a system is how we implement change, and I want to be clear, while the 2008 report does not find fault with the direction and intention of our actions, it clearly shows that we need more focus on how we are embedding quality practices into our organizational structure and that we need to improve our staff capacity and engagement to ensure that the massive changes we have been undertaking are sustained and lead to improved services.
This report has clearly validated that the system needed a better approach to resourcing, managing, and structuring and sustaining a massive change that we have embarked upon. We have been doing the right things, but we haven't focused enough in the right way.
Mr. Speaker, my department has accepted every recommendation in the OAG report, and we have provided a detailed response, which I encourage everybody to read, which moves us beyond simply saying, "We agree," and demonstrates the tangible actions that we have started and will continue. As you have already heard me say, the OAG findings aligned with our internal audit findings in key areas that we have been working on since May to implement actions to address these findings.
Mr. Speaker, we did not wait for the OAG to take action. I would like to share with you actions that my department has already taken and has planned to take moving forward.
Our 2016-2017 internal audits and executive summary, which I shared with Members of the Standing Committee on Social Development in April 2017, identified quality issues where we needed to take actions and improvements. I saw the letter again today. We sent it in 2017. I heard Members saying that they didn't see it, so we have to figure out where it is and why they didn't see it, because I sent it. Based on those audits, and the ongoing work with the Auditor General, we put together a quality improvement plan.
So what have we done? As a system, we have been moving together to develop and act on this quality improvement plan. Much has been done over the past six months. We established a system-wide coordinating team to develop and implement actions to address high-risk quality issues.
We strengthened the assistant directors' forum to enhance their capacity and role clarity and oversight over the entire system.
Using the Matrix system, which was implemented late in 2017, we have implemented a process of quality reviews in areas where risk has been identified as highest by the OAG. A quality review provides real-time information to frontline staff and management about the performance of regions and key indicators. Starting four months ago, these reviews are now provided on a monthly basis, and I look forward to sharing those with committee as we go through the review in December.
We have established a robust training team of four staff dedicated to improving clinical training of staff, and trainers are located throughout the territories. To address the issues with supervision, a clinical supervision model has already been finalized, and training is being planned and will be completed by the end of December. We have improved our out-of-territory treatment approach by redesigning work flow, building a database, and preparing agreements for all 40 clients in out-of-territory care.
Just for clarity, 20 of the children in out-of-territory care are actually with their parents. They are living with their parents in the south. The other 20 are in facilities where we have checked, and there are clear guidelines. Those clear guidelines exist should a child go AWOL. We have established a specialized caseload for foster care as a territorial approach and now have identified positions in each region and department. Four of these seven positions are filled.
We reviewed all 22 guardianship cases, and I can assure the honourable Members that, in each case, our staff with delegated authority worked with the support of legal counsel to enable family Members or other agreed-upon caregivers to assume interim or full guardianship under the Children's Law Act. All agreements were with full parental support. All agreements engaged legal counsel for the director and the parents, and in most cases, the children's lawyer. I can assure Members that these children were placed with known and trusted caregivers.
Mr. Speaker, I have just given you a list of some of what we have done to address the issues of the OAG report, but I know what you're most interested in is what we haven't done and why. What we have done hasn't been enough.
Mr. Speaker, some of my colleagues have asked why I didn't share these issues sooner, and I've been clear and honest with colleagues and the public regarding issues facing our system. In April of this year, I shared with the Standing Committee on Social Programs a report summarizing the findings of the 2016-2017 audit process within CFIS, and I recently said in this Assembly and tabled the director's report and clearly described some of our shortcomings and talked about areas that we clearly need to make some improvement.
I also advised colleagues and the public that we have much work left to do here in this House and in committee while reviewing our business plans. Our updated audit approach is about continuous quality improvement and building on the strength to develop a better system.
We haven't done a comparative audit, like the OAG, because we haven't had a baseline due to the newness of our internal audit process. Thus, we have not produced reports that would identify our performance at different points in time. That said, the department is working on an approach to public reporting of key indicators that will be more clear and more transparent.
Mr. Speaker, I know that all Members are aware that the OAG process is very protected and very regimented. All staff have been engaged in the review in the early drafts of the findings and recommendations. We are bound by confidentiality. I was, of course, aware of the key findings in the department's planning, but I would have been breaching the confidence of the OAG to disclose any details of their findings, and it could have been seen as a breach or an attempt to upend the OAG by providing significant details of our own audit that were clearly aligned with that of the OAG. Mr. Speaker, it's frustrating, I know. I hear the Members, but I respect the processes that we are bound by here, and I will honour them.
Many of you ask me: why didn't I seek resources? Mr. Speaker, we invested over $5 million in new resources to support improvements in Child and Family Services, and this was the total cost of implementing the structured decision making and Matrix. As a Minister, I took advice that the implementation of these systems would have positive impact on the workloads of staff and would change the nature of the workflow. For this reason, the opinion I received was that we should wait until full implementation. That means getting SMD Matrix in place so that we would be in a better position to do diligent and appropriate workload analysis, and that we could then use them to identify the resources that we truly need. At the time, it seemed logical, and I felt like the appropriate balance of doing the right thing would be prudent and responsible.
However, earlier this year, based on feedback from the department staff and staff from Health and Social Services, I became incredibly uncomfortable with this approach and directed the department to prepare a submission for business planning to seek new resources for more frontline staff.
The department drawing on the Child Welfare League of Canada Report and Caseloads Standards from the Child Welfare League of America completed a caseload review. While it isn't our convention to speak of matters in business planning process as colleagues, colleagues know we are seeking new resources in this important area and are proposing increases through budgetary processes for the next fiscal year. With the benefit of hindsight and finding of the OAG report, I obviously wish that we'd ask for resources to support frontline caregivers much sooner, and I'm deeply frustrated that the information I needed to provide the realization and provide direction was not available sooner.
Mr. Speaker, I saw a problem with our approach, and I took action. Mr. Speaker, in addition to the actions we have taken, there is much more work that needs to be done, and we will be compiling a focused two-year action plan to improve quality quickly. These action plans will be discussed in detail during the meeting with the Standing Committee on Government Operations in December following our well-established processes for reviewing and responding to OAG reports here in this Legislative Assembly. For the sake of time, I won't go into detail now.
Mr. Speaker, since the release of the audit, I have tried to openly share with Members what has been done and tackle head-on some of the concerns I have heard from colleagues in the hallway. Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, CUPE is not always the best way to get detailed information out. There are processes in dealing with the OAG audits, and I feel that we must refocus and get back to the established processes. This is the process the legislature designated to ensure Members have the opportunity to learn more, ask important questions, provide valuable insight, feedback, and make recommendations that will help shape the improvements that we collectively make in this area.
I look forward to your thoughts and recommendations through that important and well-established process, and I want to be clear, this essential work and the OAG's report is critical to making a stronger system.
This has been truly a gut-wrenching experience for all involved, but as leader, it is my job to tackle it head-on, not take a back seat; own it; and ensure that we learn from the experience and move forward and build our foundation we have put in place over the four years to do better. As Minister, I am completely invested in improving Child and Family Services in the Northwest Territories and to lead this system through quality improvement journey that we started since 2014 and are currently strengthening.
We are in the fourth year of a five-year action plan which will now need to be modified. We know Matrix system change does not occur as an event. It's a process that takes time, focus, periodic stock-taking, and course correction. This audit is a call to action, and it shows us where we need to tighten up.
Mr. Speaker, late last week, Senator Murray Sinclair said that "residential school monster now lives in the child welfare system in Canada," and I completely agree with him. That is consistent with what we heard during our review of the Child and Family Services system in 2010. It is why we brought forward the Building Stronger Families. This is why we are focusing on families and prevention. It's the right thing to do.
Without question, we need to do better as we continue to roll out the new innovative model. Mr. Speaker, I work hard with respect to Standing Committee on Social Programs. Together, we have been able to make a number of positive changes on files that we've worked on together to benefit all Northerners. They know that I'm open, approachable, willing to work with them, and am able to find compromise and solutions for the benefit of residents of the Northwest Territories. Touring the massive Child and Family Services system has proven incredibly difficult, but together, and all together and with the help of this very heartbreaking audit, we can make a stronger Child and Family Services system in the Northwest Territories together that meets the needs of children and families.
Mr. Speaker, the system will never be without risk, but we need to work harder to mitigate risk that exists. This is what the Auditor General told us. I hope that Members are willing to continue to work with me as Minister for the last 11 months of this term so that we don't lose momentum and can make this happen.
In closing, I would like to once again apologize to the children and families who asked us to do better, and reconfirm my commitment to redouble our efforts to make Building Stronger Families a reality for you and your families. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.