Thank you, Mr. Chair. The department has reviewed the recommendation, and we accept it. Just as a note before I go into comments specifically about the recommendation, the GNWT does have a safe disclosure policy. I understand the Member's suggestion that there needs to be something other than that, but I do strongly encourage staff, if they feel that there is something going wrong or something not working the way that it should, they always have the opportunity to use the safe disclosure policy.
With respect to this recommendation, the department does agree with the recommendation and has already actually implemented an anonymous feedback process for staff, including an anonymous Child and Family Services suggestion box, and that was done in September 2018. It is action item 1.17 in the Quality Improvement Plan.
The web link to the suggestion box is included on the monthly all-CFS staff meeting invite, so everybody who is getting invited to that meeting gets to see the suggestions that have been made so that they can have discussions around those suggestions and/or comments in order to effect change in how we are doing our services. The monthly all-CFS staff teleconference is actually being used as a reporting mechanism for the anonymous suggestion box. To date, I can say that suggestions received have actually informed the development of the quality improvement plan. It is feedback from staff that is making a difference.
The department and the authority also provide anonymous surveys for the participants of all of our training events, for example, the CPW core training. We have supervisor and manager annual training. We have assistant director training. Those trainings are identified in action item 1.18. This information that we get, which is anonymous, is used to improve subsequent training events and develop comprehensive training frameworks, which is articulated in action item 1.11.
We do recognize that staff need to feel comfortable in sharing meaningful feedback. We are working to build an organization culture that supports exactly what I feel the Members are asking us to do. Although we agree it is a recommendation, the government Cabinet will be abstaining.