I move that the Department of Health and Social Services produce a comprehensive action plan by June 30, 2014, and table it in the Legislative Assembly at the earliest opportunity.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Committee, the motion has been distributed. To the motion. Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to speak to this motion because it goes to the heart of the issues that we found with this report and with the inaction and the deficiencies that exist in the department.
We have had action plans before and little has been accomplished, so I guess I wish to impress upon the Minister and the department that committee feels very strongly that (a) we get an action plan, (b) that it be made public, and (c) that they actually act on the action plans. Committee is referring the follow-up of this report to the Standing Committee on Social Programs and I know that Social Programs will be looking for progress on the action plan from the Minister and from the department. With that, I’m done.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. To the motion. I have Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. On the motion here, it’s asking the department to come up with a comprehensive action plan by June 30, 2014. Hopefully, we learned from experience, and first from the experiences are several efforts that were made to try and reform the children and family services in terms of its deliverance and the program and services itself, so this basically says that things should be done in a timely manner and that the department needs to move forward, and we look forward to at least a semblance of an action plan that will address the very fundamental concerns that the Auditor General has raised.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. To the motion. We will go to Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We’re actually on track to finalize an action plan, and the action plan will include outstanding items from the department’s response to the 16th Legislative Assembly Standing Committee on Social Programs report commitments made in response to the March 2014 Auditor General’s report and longer term actions designed to bring about fundamental change in how we support families. We had committed to finalizing an action plan in June, and we are reviewing the recommendations in this Standing Committee on Government Operations’ report and we want to ensure that all recommendations are addressed in that action plan. If this does cause us to require more time, we will be coming to committee to seek that time.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. To the motion. I have Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the update. I think we did try and address this in the 16th Assembly and I think we did it late, but we didn’t really pursue it to the point of actually getting something done in the 16th. I think, although time may be short, that is apparently what has to happen. We need to take this on and actually demonstrate some real progress in this Assembly. Albeit, time is short and I appreciate the Minister’s steps and I’ll be certainly working with my colleagues to make sure that this comes to some real realization for people and families on the ground.
So, I will be supporting this. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. The motion is carried.
---Carried
Mr. Nadli.
