Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Cultural Safety

It is well known that Indigenous children and families are over-represented within CFS. Further, while the number of non-Indigenous children in care has declined over the past 10 years, the proportion of Indigenous children has remained roughly the same, approximately 95 percent. The committee is also aware that many residents have observed or experienced parallels between involvement with CFS and the residential school system, particularly the very real fear of having one's children removed from their home and community by government officials.

During the public hearing, when Members questioned the department about engagement with Indigenous communities, staff advised that they had been "focused internally" and that they "haven't done that fulsome kind of outreach," but were "confident that grassroots staff were working with communities." The department must show leadership and ensure that senior staff connects with front-line staff, and that both regularly engage with Indigenous and community governments. Notably, this was also recommended by our predecessor committee.

If the department wishes to make meaningful, permanent change in CFS, Indigenous people must be engaged as part of the solution. The department and authorities must maintain children's access to their culture and traditions, and ensure staff is regularly engaged in community immersion and cultural safety training.

Recommendation 6

The Standing Committee on Government Operations recommends that the Department of Health and Social Services incorporate into its quality improvement plan on child and family services a commitment to strengthen working relationships with Indigenous and community governments; and

That the department regularly report on its progress as set out in Recommendation 5.

Community Engagement

The department must also regularly collaborate with other community partners, including the Foster Family Coalition of the Northwest Territories and the extended families of children in care. Foster parents are eager and willing partners, waiting to be engaged, and families of children in care want to know that they are being heard and that the children they love are being given the opportunity to thrive. As our predecessor committee noted, improvements are still needed in supports for kinship care, that is, children being cared for by grandparents and other relatives in lieu of being cared for by their parents.

When the OAG examined supports for foster parents, it found that one audited authority offered "specialized training to some foster parents," while the other two offered "very little or no such training." The committee would like to see these supports distributed equitably across the entire territory and designed to recognize foster parents' prior experience, abilities, and unique needs, for example, particularly in kinship care, and to help foster parents navigate the CFS system and the challenges it poses to those involved.

Recommendation 7

The Standing Committee on Government Operations recommends that the Department of Health and Social Services incorporate into its quality improvement plan on child and family services a commitment to strengthen working relationships with community stakeholders in child and family services, including the Foster Family Coalition of the Northwest Territories and the extended families of children in care; and

That the department regularly report on its progress as set out in Recommendation 5.

Recommendation 8

The Standing Committee on Government Operations recommends that the Department of Health and Social Services develop and implement training for foster parents.

Recommendation 9

The Standing Committee on Government Operations recommends that the Department of Health and Social Services establish an information-sharing agreement with the Foster Family Coalition of the Northwest Territories to ensure that all foster parents may be connected with that organization's resources.

Mr. Speaker, I now pass the reading of this section to my colleague, the honourable Member for Sahtu, Daniel McNeely.