Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m just going to follow up from my Member’s statement today with questions to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment in regards to this very successful program that’s run through the NWT Skills Canada division here.

I just want to ask the Minister, does the department, working in conjunction with NWT Skills Canada, have some type of database on the successes or successful candidates or participants that obtain a job in the trade or skill that they practice and won a gold medal for, successfully obtained a job with the GNWT or industry? Do the Minister and...

Thank you, Madam Chair. It was a recommendation that I think came out of the 2000 report, as well, and something that went right back, I think it even mentioned 1977. It talked about requiring financial and human resources for this area with child and family services and nothing has been developed. There has been no caseload standards being developed and we’ve heard in some cases where a certain child protection worker might have had up to 100 cases and some of them might only have a few. So we want to make sure it’s something standardized, caseload management, and that each health authority...

Thank you, Madam Chair. In consultations with the department, we did hear that there were informal consultations with the child protection workers. We want to make sure that there’s something formally in place where instead of child protection workers being afraid to say how they really feel, that as front-line workers, as case workers seeing what’s happening in the homes, on the streets, in the communities, that they provide the recommendations that will really have a strong impact and effect on this act as we move forward and that it should come from the bottom up rather than top down and...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Auditor General did indicate that when he was doing their questioning, some of the child protection workers did indicate that they did receive training, but the level of training that they did receive varied from child protection worker to child protection worker, and I feel that that is something that needs to be standardized and something that needs to be in place so that all children that are in child protection cases have the same equal service delivery and we provide that same service delivery. Thank you.

Yes, just briefly, Madam Chair. Just speaking in terms of wraparound services and all those that are working with our child that is in care, I think it is almost common sense and with the Health Information Act that we’re working on that this might be something that we can move forward into where RCMP, teachers and anybody associated with the high-risk child or the child in service that some kind of plan of care of treatment is in place, so this is something that we’d like the department to work on.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The department started developing the Child and Family Services Standards and Procedures Manual in 1998, and despite trying to complete this work, it has never ever been completed and has never kept pace with changes to the act or the best practices in child welfare. Just to note the absence of standardized procedures for all key responsibilities is a significant deficiency. It represents a great failure to support child protection workers and this likely affects morale, staff turnover and, ultimately, the well-being of children when our workers are not supported nor...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would just like to, first of all, acknowledge and thank Ms. Bisaro for bringing this bill into the House so we can have a good debate on it today. I would also like to make a special recognition and acknowledgement of Mr. Ryan Leef who brought this private member’s bill forward that is now being debated before the House of Commons. I think what gives strength and credit and the need for this bill is the previous career that Mr. Leef had, and that was in law enforcement, and all the work he did in dealing with such individuals and seeing the need to have some type of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess the last question, we’ve got a lot of these youth that have the summers off and they might be looking for summer jobs.

Would the Minister possibly work with our Minister of Human Resources to look at developing some type of summer employment program, especially for the gold medal winners, so we can promote them, get them right into the working system and possibly create some type of program? Is he willing to work with the Minister of Human Resources to develop some type of program where our Team NWT national winners would be able to possibly be a priority to get...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I always welcome good debate in the House, depending on whatever concern or issue is brought forth. But when you look at the description here, it is to provide funding for electronic tablets to new parents. We’ve had many discussions in this House on many issues and even in committee, and a lot of times what it boils down to, we always talk about the underlying issues of why we’re funding or why program services for certain things, and a lot of times it comes down to parenting skills. How do we get our parents better skilled in terms of providing the right type of...

Thank you. I think this is an opportunity right now for government to maybe step up and take it to the next level in terms of looking at how we can think outside the box and look at all our successful candidates that have won gold medals at the territorial level and who are currently going to be representing Team NWT at the national competition here.

Would the Minister implement some type of mentorship supporting program for all of our gold medal winners or all our participants who are currently at the national level, whether they’re in Grade 9 or Grade 12, and start supporting them through the...