Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As many Members know, I’m pretty familiar with many of the rules around the House and I can easily say that many of the rules are black and white. But there is area that I often refer to as grey areas and, of course, they’re not tied to a specific rule or a breach, but sometimes more of an error of opinion or insight. Sometimes we can refer to them as someone has gingerly strolled away from the spirit and the intent of consensus government.
I’m having trouble personally putting a specific finger around what rule may have been breached, but I can tell you once I’ve stepped back, like an onion, when you peel it away it starts to make your eyes water and you start to wonder what has truly been revealed.
Pray tell, what am I talking about? Well, guess what. The Minister of Health and Social Services just over a week ago did, in my view, a pre-emptive strike on what was released yesterday tabled by yourself, the Auditor General’s report. On February 25th he read a Minister’s statement in this House as innocent as the day and seemed to try to paint the picture of child and family services that things are all okay.
I think this was a result of an effort to downplay the results that were pending. Was there a freight train coming and they thought let’s throw something to put a twist in the tracks?
I draw this House’s attention to the Minister’s statement on page 3 where they refer to procedural manuals, updating, major revisions, and by the way, they’ll be done next year. There are very similar responses of the spirit and intent of what was on chapter 39 of the AG’s report. Did the Minister get ahead of the report? I’m starting to notice a trend. The trend continues on page 4 of his statement. The Minister goes on and talks about detailed training, and the Auditor General report as well talks about training, not just once but on chapter 19, 41, chapter 42 and even 80. Was the Minister trying to get ahead of the report or, as he said on CBC last night, well, there are just a few things they need to tweak, I think he said.
This is a serious moral breach. It’s not a technical breach. There are no rules in our green books to tell us what rule has been broken, but I can tell you, getting ahead of the Auditor General’s report and trying to play it down, I think is a moral breach of the spirit and the intent of consensus government that we live and run every day in this building.
I will continue on this trek of saying, why did he do this? We need to have a serious discussion about the way we do business here.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s hard not to take a moment to discuss the recent scathing Auditor General’s Report on the Child and Family Services in the Northwest Territories. Unfortunately, what is an embarrassment to the Minister’s office and senior management of Health and Social Services is equally troublesome to every legislator in this room. How did we allow this to proceed under our watch in a consensus government? Clearly, this gold standard in auditing pointed out areas of concern that were discussed, debated and allegedly resolved by Members of the 16th Assembly, so why did we not see a paradigm shift in thinking for our most vulnerable in society? What were the barriers to making the required changes for monitoring, proper reporting and, ultimately, protection of our children?
This is merely not as simple as the Minister has commented publicly as tinkering around the edges. There is much more behind this story than the statistics. The concern is accountability. According to the report, there appears to be zero guidance and no tools to support delivery of these services. Furthermore, the report mentions time and time again that under the act, the director of child and family services is the one accountable for all decisions made by child protection workers. Furthermore, this same director is required to report annually to the Minister of Health on the performance of the child and family services system. Shamefully, according to the report, no reporting had taken place for the past 10 years. Ten years! Without any dashboard indicators, I question what the senior management and Ministers of the day used to assure themselves the system was adequately meeting the needs of children and families. They must be using a Ouija board or fortune cookies.
We know the Auditor General’s report is now before the Standing Committee of Government Operations for a formal review, but until the committee comes back with their recommendations, I hope the Minister and the department think long and hard on what they’re going to do today for those who breach accountability and put our children at risk, because lip service ain’t gonna cut it anymore. Not on this one.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we’ve heard, the Report of the Office of the Auditor General on Child and Family Services was tabled in the House yesterday. I read the report last night and again today. There is so much in it it’s hard to know where to start. The assistant auditor general, Mr. Campbell, called it troubling, and considering the contents of the report, I see that as an understatement.
After reading the report, there was a mixture of emotions for me: gratitude to the office of the Auditor General for their work. As always, they were thorough, fair, in-depth, to the point, and extremely helpful to us as legislators. But I also felt disappointment and despair. Despair because I was part of the standing committee of the 16th Assembly which invested many, many hours in 2010 doing an in-depth review of the Child and Family Services Act. The report from that committee included over 70 recommendations, and the committee members had high hopes for change, high hopes for improvement in a system which we had heard was not working.
Now, three years later, the Auditor General’s report indicates little change occurred; few recommendations were heeded. In fact, this review points out that similar recommendations from a report tabled way back in 2000 have yet to be acted on. Right now our child and family services system is operational but dysfunctional. Using the Health and Social Services department’s own guidelines, and that’s the Child and Family Services Act, as a measure, the system can be said to be in crisis.
Here are just some of the observations from the office of the Auditor General’s report:
There is no accountability framework; therefore, a huge lack of accountability at the health and social service authorities and at the department.
Concerns brought to the attention of workers and some necessary investigations were not acted on.
Plans of care for children have not been followed up on.
Foster homes have not been properly vetted or monitored.
There are still no services for youth 16 to 18 years old.
There is an identified need for the department and the authorities to provide greater guidance for child and family service workers, to assist them with prevention activities so they can, in turn, assist families in trouble.
There is a lack of both financial and human resources to adequately deliver child and family services in the NWT.
The Minister and the department have responded swiftly to the report, as we have heard.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
The Minister’s response indicates either genuine concern or an attempt to douse the flames. I sincerely hope it is the former. I look forward to working with the Minister to enact some real and positive change for the children and families of the NWT who use the child and family services system. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
