Deputy minister of Health and Social Services Bruce Cooper responds to a scathing audit of child and family services in the NWT.
Despite being given just one day to look over the territorial government’s plan to improve child and family services, MLAs agreed to push forward with a review because of significant public interest following a scathing auditor general report.
The audit by Canada’s Office of the Auditor General on the failures of the territory’s Child and Family Services division was released in October.
It found that a woefully overburdened system has been shortchanging an average of about 1,000 – mostly Indigenous – children per year who receive protection or preventive services.
In the wake of the audit, a number of MLAs called for Health Minister Glen Abernethy to resign and he barely survived a non-confidence vote in the legislative assembly by an 11 to 7 margin on Oct. 31.
In response to the audit, territorial health authorities will request more financial support and additional positions following Abernethy’s decision to assess the department’s needs, said Health and Social Services deputy minister Bruce Cooper, during a committee meeting on Dec. 12.
The authority cannot reveal the extent of its budget needs until February when the legislative assembly resumes but Cooper said they hope to hire more people so foster children receive better care.
"We’ve done some fulsome analysis. I feel confident with the business case we’ve put together," he said.
Kam Lake MLA Kieron Testart chided the health authority for failing to share its plans with the committee within three required days of the meeting.
MLAs had little time to go through the plan and share concerns on behalf of residents, said Hay River North MLA RJ Simpson, who acknowledged positive planned improvements including better reporting and tracking measures.
"We can’t expect the auditor general to keep ringing the alarm bells, while we do nothing," said Simpson.
The level of financial support a family receives is variable, a problem identified by MLA Herb Nakimayak, which means that some families (including grandparents) aren’t equitably funded to support children.
Families have many "hoops to jump through" before they get the care they need to keep their children or transfer care to grandparents, said Nakimayak.
Working on mental health and housing are also critical to improving outcomes for children and families, he said.
"I encourage working with Indigenous governments on this," he said. "If we fail to make this work then really we’re part of the problem as well."