Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will try to keep most of this short. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services on children in care. Mr. Speaker, children who are in temporary and permanent care are extremely vulnerable in every aspect of their health and well-being, where the development is extremely dependent on the adults who control them and their environment.
The Auditor General report has found that children were not consistently monitored and/or interviewed. Mr. Speaker, what can the Minister do for these children, if they are not being regularly contacted by Health and Social Services, and to ensure that the views of children in this system are known? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we did work very closely with the Auditor General during this report, and in a number of situations, they did identify files and individuals where they thought there was some immediate risk. We dealt with those immediately. We reached out with our staff to engage with those people that were in immediate risk.
In addition to that, we have also conducted some of our own audits. We have seen those things. We have been reaching out to residents across the Northwest Territories to make sure that we are actually meeting those standards now. In many cases, we are. We are still struggling in some jurisdictions where we have low staff numbers, which is one of the reasons that we are working hard to fill some of these positions, recognizing that we also hope to increase the number of positions through the next budgeting cycle, should that pass in this House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I appreciate the response. Mr. Speaker, earlier in this Assembly, I mentioned that Health is such a massive department; I think we need to look at something just for children and for elders, for that matter, so that issues like this don't reoccur.
Mr. Speaker, earlier I spoke about the extreme dependency children have on the adults that they are surrounded with, and it is an injustice when children don't know their own rights. Mr. Speaker, what can Health and Social Services do to ensure children and guardians are well aware of child rights so that they are protected in mind, body, and spirit?
Unfortunately, this is one of the areas where the auditor said that we aren't doing as good as we need to do, and we aren't having as much follow-up with our residents. That includes both the families as well as the children as we need to. We are stepping that up. We are making sure, moving forward, that there is regular contact. Part of our requirement is to help people understand their rights under the legislation, but also the services that are available to them.
We are trying to move away from the apprehension system more to a prevention system, so we are also working with families on a voluntary basis. We have had a significant increase in the number of voluntary files; we have seen a decrease in a number of permanent apprehensions.
In some areas, we are moving in the right direction, but when it comes to the individual contact with those kids, we need to do better.
I believe it is an important aspect of everything. Sometimes we work around the system, but the system needs to focus more on human beings.
Mr. Speaker, I know a woman in my riding who had to give up her child in order to help her escape the mother's impoverished circumstances. In foster care, foster parents are given a rate in order to meet the child's basic needs. Mr. Speaker, when guardianship is transferred to a relative, why aren't the relatives given the same foster rate to meet the child's basic needs?
This is one of the issues that came up in the review of Child and Family Services that the Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh and I participated in. We have made some changes within the system so that, if a family member wants to foster the child and become their caregiver, we can actually facilitate that and help them and provide them with a foster fee. If they were to adopt the child, that would become a familiar relationship, and it wouldn't necessarily get some coverage.
Once again, the system we are putting in place is about building stronger families and supporting families through these periods. Even if they were to take a child on and adopt them and then start experiencing some difficulties, they could still come to us on a voluntary basis and look for the supports they need on a short-term basis to help them get back to where they are, which is providing the care they need to for their adopted children.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
