Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have been briefed on the situation. I would be happy to have a conversation with the Member, but I’m not prepared to speak about an individual or her individual case here in the House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Member and I were both on the review of the Child and Family Services Committee in the 16th Assembly, and that was one of the clear recommendations, and we believe that. I still believe that is one of the key findings of that review that we did and is one of the reasons that I’ve worked hard on the Anti-Poverty Action Plan and the Anti-Poverty Framework. I continue to champion for the territorial development of a territorial action plan. The answer is yes, I think we can do better in that area. This morning I talked about neglect on the radio and that we need to move forward with some...

Thank you. Of course it’s a possibility, absolutely. We’ve got only a finite number of employees within the GNWT with the technical expertise in their different areas, but it’s absolutely irrelevant. The Member’s statement or the Minister’s statement was mine, I directed the department on what I wanted to say, I wanted to follow up on the types of things that are going on in the department and regardless of who writes it, it’s still my statement.

Thank you. My statement made on February 25th is actually incredibly consistent with the exact conversations that I’ve had in committee on other occasions. This is not new information; this is not some brand new thing that we’re doing. I believe the former Minister has actually made similar statements. As the Minister, I have the ability to select what statements I’m going to make and the child and family service file was an important one to me. It has been an important one since I was elected for my first term and it will continue to be important to me and I’ll continue to make statements...

It’s something that I’ve actually thought of at different times. I’ve had an opportunity to talk to professionals who were around in the day when the two departments were brought together or the many departments were brought together and services were shipped out to Education, Culture and Employment in other areas as well.

I’ve also had an opportunity to talk to a significant number of professionals in the system. At the end of the day, it’s my opinion what we want is an integrated system. We want social workers and social service providers able to work collaboratively with our health providers...

I think the Auditor General kind of hit it on the head when they referred to the lack of accountability in the system. I think it was Mr. Moses who outlined the structure where the Minister is responsible and then the director is responsible for the provisions of the act and they delegated responsibilities down to staff who actually report it in authority and move up, so there’s limited accountability in the authority which means it may not have been a priority to the degree we needed it to be, certainly not to the degree the Standing Committee on Social Programs in the 16th Assembly believed...

Thank you. It’s awfully cynical and it seems to be attributing motive, which is not really the case. I was involved in the file. I am the Minister of Health and Social Services and I have taken an active interest in this file. I have had many discussions with the department, and the department, yes, is involved in preparing responses to the audit, which I don’t get to see until the audit is actually out there, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that we need to do a lot more on this file, and I’m taking action and I have been taking action and I didn’t wait for...

Thank you. It kind of sounds like the Member didn’t review the Child and Family Services Act from the 16th Assembly because the two are very similar. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Auditor General of Canada’s Report on Child and Family Services was tabled in this House. The Auditor General’s findings indicate that the health and social services system is not adequately meeting its key responsibilities for the protection and well-being of children, youth and families. This is a serious concern for all of us.

The conclusions in the report confirm the findings of the 16th Legislative Assembly’s Standing Committee on Social Programs’ review of the Child and Family Services Act. As a participant in that review, I care deeply about ensuring that we...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. If I understand the question correctly, it’s about expenditure control within the department and the authorities.