Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Once again, this weekend, I was reminded by a constituent of a situation which exists in the Northwest Territories and I am going to attempt to describe that today, Mr. Speaker.
When a family member observes a child that is in some form of risk or potentially in harm’s way, it is a natural affection of a family member that would cause that person, that parent, that adult to reach out to that child to remove them from that situation or at least provide some kind of respite from that home to care for that child. This happens with aunties, grandparents, cousins. All kinds of people in the North see a child, they know there’s a situation in the home that is unhealthy or puts the child at risk. The parent may only need temporary relief from a situation. It may only need some family help.
Here is the problem with the policies of our government the way they are set up: if a family member moves in to intervene to help a situation, there is no support for them. I have heard this story told to me over and over again. Because they are a relative, because it did not go through the courts, because it was not a formal home study and a foster placement for that child, then there is no support for that child. It’s not fair to the caregiver and it’s not fair to the child, because even if this family were to give this child a very stable, nurturing, safe home environment, the fact is that it still costs money to care for another child that is not a member of your family. This takes financial resources, particularly sometimes as the child grows older and wants to begin to participate in sporting activities and a myriad of other things.
My question today for the Minister of Health and Social Services will be: why does it have to be all or nothing? Why can we not recognize the good intentions of family members who want to help a child?
The Standing Committee on Social Programs will be going on the road very shortly with a review of the Child and Family Services Act. I am not a part of that committee but I wish them well and I encourage people who know of these kinds of situations to come out and speak to these committee members. They most definitely want to hear your stories and hear from you so that our legislation reflects the needs of the people it’s meant to care for.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
