Mr. Speaker, over the last several months I’ve been working with some families in the Sahtu region. We develop policies at the Legislative Assembly. They are brought forward by the Cabinet, and we go through the policies and have them implemented in different programs. These policies are well written, they’re well thought out, but when they hit the community at the community level, there seems to be a disconnect there.
One of the things I want to talk about is foster care. I want to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services about when children are taken out of the communities as to the point of contact. In my community I have received several phone calls. There seems to be a disconnect with the department and the policies, and some of the different organizations are blaming each other.
I want to ask the Minister in terms of a similar program they have in Fort McPherson; I think it’s called Plan of Care. Is that something that the department is thinking about implementing in our region? Because that was supposed to happen in the Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Plan of Care is something that has been provided for with the recent amendments to the Child and Family Services Act and is one that we would like to see implemented in every community.
The department staff have been going to the regions to work with community leadership and the communities to help them set them up. We have not had as much response as we would like. We will continue to work with the communities to support them to get this set up, because it is a good avenue for the communities to participate and have some say on the children.
It has been over how many years that the community has been saying this in terms of Plan of Care? My community of Colville Lake, over a number of years, has been saying this. The chief has called me; people in the community have called me. They’ve said, “Why don’t we get to work and get them to talk to us? They come in here and they scoop up the children and they bring them outside.”
I guess we’re waiting for the implementation of a good program. We’ve heard some good things from Fort McPherson. When are we going to see dollars that match these good words? It’s long overdue. Again I ask the Minister of Health and Social Services — the community is ready — to get this Plan of Care implemented into our communities ASAP.
As the Member is aware, this is relatively new legislation. The last Standing Committee on Social Programs worked to implement that.
The second thing is that all of the tools and the legislative framework are there. We just need to work harder to get the communities to come on board. There’s not a lot of money allocated for that. It’s a situation where community leadership and interested parties could get together, and we will give administrative support in that regard.
Lastly, what I want to say is that in some situations in our regions, families agree…. In Sahtu they have agreed to the arrangements that we have had for the children, even if they had to be moved out of communities, because in some cases they are with extended family in another community in the same region. These are very private and confidential family issues that we can’t really talk about here.
I do respect the confidentiality of this issue. But when the communities, such as my community, have elders come and talk to me…. The chief has come and talked to me; the families have talked about it with me. They ask how come the community hasn’t been notified and it hasn’t been discussed.
Small, close knit communities certainly know what’s going on. The elders said to me, “Why isn’t that child being looked after by our community? We could have done it.”
Again, the program is in place. How come, when we have this program, it’s not supported by resources? I’ll ask the Minister: would she look carefully, in terms of the resources that should be with these programs? Because right now… [English translation not provided] …there’s no money.
I think I have a good idea which community of the region the Member is referring to. I’ll commit to the Member that I will revisit to see where we are with that in terms of the conversation we’ve had with the community leadership. I will lend as much support as I can to make that Plan of Care Committee be established in that community.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Item 18, first reading of bills. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just had a couple more oral questions, if I could. Are you still on item 7, Mr. Speaker? If not, I seek unanimous consent to return to item 7.
Unanimous consent granted.
