Alfred Moses

Madam Chair, I move that the Department of Health and Social Services, in consultation with the health and social services authorities, develop a process for all parties involved in the delivery of child and family services to share information on best practices and challenges in delivery of these of these services.

Madam Chair, I move that the Department of Health and Social Services complete revisions to the Child and Family Services Standards and Procedures Manual by December 2014.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Thursday, June 5th, 2014, I will move the following motion: I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Great Slave, that, notwithstanding Rule 4, when this House adjourns on June 5, 2014, it shall be adjourned until Thursday, October 16, 2014; and further, that any time prior to October 16, 2014, if the Speaker is satisfied, after consultation with the Executive Council and Members of the Legislative Assembly, that the public interest requires that the House should meet at an earlier time during the adjournment, the Speaker may give notice and...

Thank you. I know the Minister mentioned the Canada Job Grant. I think that’s a great opportunity, a great program and as long as we can start getting by and promoting that program, but we do have some youth that are down there in Grade 9, Grade 10 and this is a great opportunity for government to step up now and say, in two or three years you’re going to be either going to post-secondary or even getting some type of career, as a government we’re willing to help you, support you, because sometimes some of these individuals might not have high math skills, high chemistry skills, but the trade...

Thank you. Yes, just briefly, I think the motion states specifically what we need here and I also think that there does need to be inventory assessment of caseloads across the Northwest Territories in the regions and maybe identify which regions have the highest caseloads and start putting some of our resources, financial, human, towards those regional authorities that we can assist and provide quality care for our children and our families. Thank you.

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.