Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The motion is in order. To the motion. Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just briefly, the committee’s desire here is to make sure, knowing that the Health and Social Services department is looking at changes in governance within our health and social services authorities, knowing that, the committee is very concerned that we don’t wait to make the required changes in the child and family services division and in the services we provide.
Certainly the two major reports that have been done previously, in 2000 and in 2010, had quite a few recommendations and not much happened. So we don’t want that to happen again. This is a serious situation where we have children at risk and committee is quite concerned that we not see a delay in any changes in implementation to activities to fill in the problems and the gaps that we have seen through this report. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. To the motion. Mr. Yakeleya.
Mr. Chair, I look forward to the department correcting these deficiencies as noted by the Auditor General. I know the department also made some responses to the deficiencies, and I’m hoping that “immediately” means right now, today, not next week or the week after.
There are deficiencies, as noted by the Auditor General, in the child and family services within this department here. There are some deficiencies that need to be corrected right now; others, as Ms. Bisaro has noted, we don’t want to wait for the whole bag of deficiencies to be looked at and corrected until we have an excuse for the governance reform. I don’t know what that reform, the interpretation of the reform that’s taking place. That just seems to be a stalling tactic, or wait until the end of the 17th. Then it will be two Assemblies who don’t do anything.
These are the promises of the 16th Assembly, which we didn’t do very much, if anything. Now, I’m hoping that these improvements, as Ms. Bisaro noted, will not be delayed, otherwise we’re just talking in the wind here and not making any sense.
In the 16th we met with people in the communities. That cost a lot of money and we don’t really have much to show for it, yet we’re still talking about this stuff. It’s crazy.
I guess that’s why I’m looking for some movement and I’m hoping that…(inaudible)…says we have to make some significant improvements here. I’m just hoping that this isn’t taken as a delay tactic, waiting for something else to happen before we can make any type of significant changes in the reform system. In the meantime, families in our communities in the North have to deal with the deficiencies. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. To the motion. Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. With respect to immediately taking some actions, I agree with recommendation number seven. To that end, I’ve already committed to developing a new accountability framework for child and family service programs, which will be done in July.
In addition to that, steps have already been taken to appoint CEOs as assistant directors under the act, and new, more rigorous quarterly reporting requirements will take effect in the fall. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. The motion is carried.
---Carried
Ms. Bisaro.
