Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that the Department of Health and Social Services focus on prevention, early intervention and family preservation strategies with the goal of reducing the need for child apprehensions; and further, that measurable targets be specified for the upcoming five- and 10-year periods. Mahsi, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. To the motion. Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think it’s fair to say that most of us have experienced in some way the experiences of the residential schools and the trauma in terms of separating children from parents. Again, unfortunately there are instances where that separation continues. We have examples of where grandparents want to step in to help their grandchildren, but sometimes the system is not favourable for them to step in to be there as guardians, as the caretakers of their grandchildren. Unfortunately, sometimes they say the system does not help them at all.
This motion is encouraging the department to look at prevention and early intervention and family preservation strategies. Essentially look at, at least consider the role of elders or grandparents as one example in terms of trying to remedy the situation of child apprehensions. Hopefully, this will be articulated in the action plan that we expect will come about by the end of this summer. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. To the motion. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just quickly, and this is a little bit of what I was referring to. While I support the need for five- and 10-year measurable targets, in fact we need one-year targets and I’m hoping I’ll be seeing those as we go through the motions here and that the Minister will, in fact, recognize the need for that during the life of this Assembly, what are we going to get done approach. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. To the motion. Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to comment on Mr. Bromley’s comments on time frame and look at some of the good work that happened in the 16th Assembly on child and family services community public hearings on this specific issue. The hope that went around the communities with the public hearings of raising the expectations and knowing that this 16th Assembly was going to make some changes and now we’re into the 17th Assembly. People’s expectations were raised and now they fall down again. We want to hold people at the helm of the steering wheel accountable. Comments like Mr. Bromley’s make it measurable, not just after five, 10 years, but at least we know that the people who are going to do this work, they’re held accountable and it’s a measurable form. Five or 10 years is a long time. We need to show that there is trust there again for the people who are seeing their children apprehended. Having some of the good discussions and take some concrete actions.
So I’d like to see some measurable movements, results, as a result of this motion coming to the floor. Like I said, we need to get to work on this. So those are my comments.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. To the motion, Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As a government, as a Legislature we’ve already made prevention and early intervention a priority with a number of actions in both the Early Childhood Development Action Plan and the Addictions and Mental Health Action Plan. As a part of our new action plan for building stronger families that I’d mentioned in the previous motion, we’ll look at more actions focused on family preservation. We will introduce public reporting on key system-wide performance measures over the next couple of months and these will also include several measures related directly to the child and family services.
Obviously, we’ll also consider the committee’s recommendations on other specific measures throughout the recommendation. As part of the plan, we will be setting short, medium and long-term targets. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. The motion is carried.
---Carried
Mr. Nadli.
