Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we all know of someone in our communities who was in the child welfare system. Some parents and grandparents passed on without seeing the children. This is sad as many families long to see the children, maybe just to say I love you, hug them, or ask for forgiveness.
With that in mind, Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the Minister in reference to my Member's statement, can the Premier explain in as much detail as possible why the NWT was excluded from the final settlement agreement related to the compensation for those harmed by discriminatory underfunding of First Nation Child and Family Services? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Monfwi. Mr. Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So this settlement stemmed from a complaint to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal by the Assembly of First Nations and an additional society, I can't recall the name right now. This process, that was in 2007, and it was finally in 2023 that the agreement was settled after the human rights tribunal ordered Canada to pay a certain amount, which they appealed. It was then confirmed.
From my understanding, because we are not a party to this lawsuit, it wasn't our -- we had no option to opt into this. But the program, the First Nations Child and Family Services Program, applied in all provinces and the Yukon except Ontario. In Ontario, there was a cost sharing agreement with the province for the provision of child and family services on First Nations reserves, and there was also a federal agreement with Alberta and BC to provide child and family services to certain First Nation reserves. And a similar agreement was in place in the Yukon as well. And so for whatever reason, it's those provinces and territories who fit that criteria that the claim was made on behalf of.
So I've dealt with this as a constituent issue myself because the thought that this is not fair to people in the Northwest Territories who have been through the system is one that is shared by many in the territory. And I think I agree with the Member that we should have been involved in this. We should have been part of this, as Nunavut as well. But the fact is that the tribunal -- the complaint to the tribunal did not include us. So it was a decision of those making the complaint to not include the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Yes, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Premier for the answer. And it will be nice to know who was the Premier in 2007, and maybe Mr. Hawkins was part of -- was a Regular MLA as well. So somebody didn't do their job here.
So, Mr. Speaker, can the Premier explain whether there is anything within his powers as Premier that may be available to him to intervene in this final settlement agreement to include affected NWT residents within the recipients of the case? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I stated, this was a decision by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, which I have no influence over. It ended up with an agreement, agreed to by the Government of Canada, and so I have no ability to open up that agreement, which was the result of, you know, 16 years essentially of litigation. So, no, unfortunately the answer is no, as far as I know. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, if there's a will, there's a way, okay. So I know that they could do it. And Nunavut has a good president too, Nathan Denette -- sorry, I forgot his name but, you know, they can do it.
So, Mr. Speaker, will the Premier acknowledge that there were individuals within the NWT child welfare system between 1991 and 2022 who endured the pain, trauma, and hardship from the GNWT's child welfare system similar to what people endured under the federal system pertaining to this case.
So that's just more of a comment. So, Mr. Speaker, will the Premier commit to -- yes, I'm getting to it.
Mr. Speaker, will the Premier commit to reexamine this case and reconsider whether NWT residents in the child welfare system under the same timeframe deserve some level of compensations as individuals in other jurisdictions received under this settlement agreement. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And the Member had a couple of questions in there. The earlier one, were there individuals in the system in the Northwest Territories who suffered hardship? Of course there were. I know them personally; I'm sure every Member of this House probably has stories about someone they know who was in the system. That being said, this is a settled agreement that I have no ability to influence. We would likely need changes to -- or potentially need changes to federal legislation, we would need the human rights tribunal to be on board, the Government of Canada I'm assuming. So where there's a will, there's a way, but there needs to be a will beyond just the will of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. There needs to be a will among all of the parties involved and it's much, much larger than just the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.
