EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
I just have a quick question. I’m thinking it will be fairly quick, Mr. Chairman.
There has been a fair bit of media focus on custom adoption fairly recently in the media.
Part of the priorities listed in 2014-15 in the business plan is to “review the Aboriginal Custom Adoption Recognition Act.”
Is this a media-driven review or was this review planned some time ago?
We know that adoption has really increased ever since the creation of Nunavut. Custom adoptions have basically skyrocketed.
The people who adopt according to custom, those babies become theirs, but there is a request to review this.
I would like Simon Awa to elaborate on this further in response to Mr. Hickes.
The Aboriginal Custom Adoption Recognition Act, or ACARA, we call it in short term, is an outdated Custom Adoption Act that was inherited from the NWT and was written back in 1994.
As a Nunavut territory, we need to review this Act and update it, “Nunavutize” it, and the review is not media-driven.
I understand the need to bring the Act up to date, but I also have some concerns. Custom adoption is a very culturally relevant practice and, in many circumstances, adoptions were done quite informally until fairly recently where there’s actually legislation in place to make sure that there’s legal standing to these adoptions that have been occurring for generations.
How is this review going to maintain the cultural integrity of the current legislation?
I thank Mr. Hickes for asking about custom adoptions.
When we do our review, we will not be the only department that will be coming to a decision. We will be having discussions with Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated in terms of what kind of input they want.
That is the way I can answer it.
Mr. Hickes: What kind of parameters are going to be part of this review?
Specifically what I’m looking at is if parents of children that want another family to adopt their children. Are there going to be barriers created or an evaluation process for these families? Will the minister let me know if those circumstances are part of the review?
The custom adoption situation is practiced today.
Modern Inuit today have their babies adopted by Qallunaat so this is a new situation. This situation needs to be looked at.
The next person on the list.
Mr. Mikkungwak: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. (interpretation) The first question will be in all of Nunavut the communities all have social service workers. Some have certificates.
Those certificates… are very important as a sign of authority for being able to take children away.
I know that there was a question relating to that by another of my colleagues and I have been working with them, too.
How would Inuit who work in this area and you have answered, minister, about training online, courses online? However, if they are declined who would they turn to for more education? Distance education, and so on.
Whoever wants to take the… Thank you.
Whoever wishes to take training online… these are under the career development officer.
They would need to go through those employees. It could be referenced through there.
Mr. Mikkungwak: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. for the staff to receive training, so what I’m hearing correctly is that they have to seek training through the career development officer’s office from the Department of Education?
When they begin to work for our department then there certificates and if they are able to get their certificate and they would be able to get appointed.
In reference to the computer services, they would need to be done through the career development office if they wish to take courses online.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you. Mr. Mikkungwak.
With the casuals that are hired by the department, do the CSSW casuals receive additional training from your office or do they have to seek training from other departments to get the certification so that they can legally apprehend children?
Only the director can provide certification.
I understand there is legislation in place for child protection.
When a child is apprehended, there is a timeline for reporting in order to legally apprehend the child.
My question is after a child has been legally apprehended and after it has gone through court, when a court makes a ruling and makes a decision before moving the child from that particular foster home, would you not have to go through another court process or is that waived?
I would like the director to answer this particular question in reference to the children because there are various scenarios that could be followed.
The member is quite correct; when the child is apprehended under the child and family services act, there is a strict requirement around bringing the matter before the court.
The serious matter of an apprehension can be reviewed by a JP or a judge as the matter proceeds through the court. The director is then required to putting a plan of care before the court.
The decision of the judge is to approve or not that plan of care.
As the minister has pointed out, there are various scenarios because there is a wide range of powers that are provided by the judge in order to dispose of the case.
That will normally include the child if the judge is making the decision that the child is going to be remaining in the care of the director, then the decision of placement will be made at the discretion of the director.
I guess when we look at the child that has been apprehended that the department take all of the child’s ID after an apprehension has taken place?
I will have Mr. Dudding answer this.
With respect, I am not sure that I fully understood what the question is. If I could ask the member’s indulgence may just to restate it so I am sure I am answering his question correctly.
When a child has been apprehended to provide quality of service for that particular child that has been apprehended the department take all of the child’s identification cards also to provide quality service.
Mr. Dudding: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I now understand the question.
Yes, the director in effect becomes the guardian for that child during the period of time they are in care and as guardian then would have responsibility for the registration identification for the child, things such as health care card, birth certificate, social insurance number, if that has been applied for and signing authority for school records and that sort of thing would be the responsibility of the director as guardian as it would be for a parent and other circumstances.
I guess we will go into the dollar figure here.
When you look at child protection and apprehension matters…on your D5, which particular services would be the money figure that would look after all of the children in care? Would that be purchased services, contract services, or grants and contributions?
I would like Mr. David Kolot to come back here so he can respond to the finance question.
The children protection services branch is protection services division or call centre basically looks after all compensation and benefits for all these social workers in the various regions of Nunavut.
There is also travel and accommodation….I should give you some numbers. The compensation and benefits is about $8.3 million. There is a travel and transportation of about $953,000.
Materials and supplies is $230,000. Purchase services of $1,549,000. There is a very small amount for contract services, season payments of $139,000, ad $39,000 for other expenses.
The expenditures that relate to residential care placement are not in this cost centre; they fall under residential care facility based division.
While we are talking about figures; when you look at those figures that have to do with the child that has been apprehended so that they receive quality service, the adult support, I am assuming, is to provide support to the parents that have their child apprehended.
In your budget here, how much money are you spending to provide adult support within Nunavut?
I would like David Kolot to respond to that.
That is a very good question that the member is asking.
Adult support services is an umbrella service for a variety of areas within the department; guardianship, family violence, and, basically, under adult support services, we are allocating about $3,143,000 broken down into travel, a small amount for contract services, and an amount for materials, supplies, and purchase services.
With all that money that is being spent on travel, is that just within the territory of Nunavut, or the figure that you indicated earlier, $953,000, is that just within Nunavut?
Most of that money is for travel within Nunavut, but some of it is for outside of Nunavut as well.
While we are still talking figures here, in your main estimates, 2014-15, contract services, $31,769,000, how much of that money will be spent within Nunavut?
I would like our finance director to respond to that.
The allotment of $31,769,000 is basically responsible for contracts related to residential care, contracts related to children outside of Nunavut is $9,944,000, children within Nunavut is $4,040,000, adults outside of Nunavut is $12,430,000, adults within Nunavut is $4,661,000.
Those are all residential care related.
There’s a small amount of $694,000 for other contracts.
If you look at those contract figures, in terms of the amount that would relate to Nunavut, I think we would have to add up the children within Nunavut of $4 million, and the adults within Nunavut of almost $5 million, so I would say $9 million dollars of that contract services would stay within Nunavut, Thank you.
My next question is in regard to grants and contributions; is that whole entitlement going to be within Nunavut?
So you can understand it clearly, I would like Mr. Kolot to respond to that.
Yes, all of the grants and contributions is for inside of Nunavut.
What about purchase services?
As you stated previously, when the service of building was going to be taken over by the hospital I think the purchase service agreement has to do with the hospital.
The $4,521,000, is that only going to be used for outside of Nunavut?
We do not understand your question about purchase services.
Mr. Mikkungwak: Maybe the minister can identify what purchase services are.
I believe that looks after residential care expenditures. Maybe the minister can correct if I am wrong.
With the purchase services and the group home that has changed to the Department of Health, would the purchase service amount now be going all outside of Nunavut?
Mr. Kolot said no, so I say no.
What percentage of the family services budget goes outside of Nunavut?
Chairman: Thank you. Mr. Kolot.
In terms of budget that goes outside of Nunavut, the major area that we are looking at is under contract services. Will we pay for adults outside of Nunavut? Will we pay for children outside of Nunavut?
As I mentioned, for children outside of Nunavut, we are estimating the portion of our budget is almost $10 million; that’s the two contractors outside of Nunavut.
In terms of adults, we are looking at $12,430,000 that is paid to contractors outside of Nunavut.
That is the majority of our budget, for the most part, that goes to contractors outside of Nunavut.
When a children has been apprehended for so long, and they are placed in a foster home and prior to becoming of legal age, and the department will no longer be holding them once they reach the legal age, how much time does your department prepare the young individual to have all the IDs up to date so that once they become of legal age and the department can no longer have them in care, how much time do you guys take to prepare for the child to have proper identification?
In the Act that was just amended we increased the age to 26. A person can be the ward of social services up until the age of 26 under foster care.
You want to know how long and I think I would like Peter Dudding to respond to that.
To add to the minister’s comments about the extended care support agreements up to the age of 26 for children who are leaving care to add to that is that normally the documentation in terms of identification, the member was asking about, would be done when the child was coming into care.
It would be required, for example, it’s part of the course process that we were discussing earlier. That documentation is usually provided quite early on in terms of a child’s experience in care.
I thank the official for the answer but my question here was when the child who will soon become an adult prior to the department releasing the child from their care before he or she becomes of legal age and knowing how long it takes any government ID to be processed, photo ID, social insurance number, birth certificate, all those IDs.
How much time do you guys start working in completing those documents so that you are providing quality of service to the youth prior to being out of your care?
The people who deal with the social work. I know that they have to deal diligently following the policy.
As the children come of age they usually take care of them so that’s how I can respond to the question.
The identification cards which the member is alluding to don’t come from our department. Through working with GLO that’s how we can obtain them especially when they are in the local community.
After the session is over, if we are going to release one of our children who was a ward of the state, we will look into that.
The reason that I posed that question is within my constituency one of the youth that was apprehended and prior to the department releasing him he waited well over 1 year to get proper identification.
Whether it be photo ID or whatnot, my comment, I guess this will be my closing comment here. Seeing that you have apprehended the child you are responsible as a department in ensuring that you provide quality of service to the child and ensure all proper legal documents are taken care of in the best interest of that child.
As you have apprehended the child from the parents so I just want to state that.
Chairman: I think that was just a comment.
Do you want to add anything to that? Minister Ugyuk.
We take the recommendation.
Chairman: Mr. Joanasie.
First of all, to start off with the Department of Family Services, in their objectives on the fourth bullet, it states, “To protect the rights of children, youth, families, and vulnerable individuals.”
Just to add to that, many Nunavummiut are dealing with challenging social issues. I am very pleased that your department protects our children.
Yes, we need to promote the rights of children, youth, families, and vulnerable individuals.
We have to pay close attention to make sure that we protect the rights of children and provide quality service to them.
I just want to show my appreciation for your department’s work for providing that protection. I urge your department to utilize Inuit societal values within your programs and services to the people.
I just wanted to make that comment first of all.
I will move on to my question.
My first question will be under Guardianship Services. How many individuals use guardianship services?
I thank Mr. Joanasie for that question in regard to guardianship services. He didn’t mention any figures.
I’ll have Peter Dudding respond.
Chairman (Mr. Mikkungwak)(interpretation): Thank you very much.
Mr. Dudding.  Hon. Jeannie Ugyuk (interpretation): He’s looking for the numbers.
Mr. Dudding: My apologies, Mr. Chair. Too much paper, I’m afraid.
The number of adults currently under guardianship is 123. Again, my apology for the delay.
Can he also state how many… maybe I misunderstood.
There are 123 individuals that need to be taken care of or is it 123 people providing the service. Which one is it?
The information… adults that are under their guardianship there are 123 of them.
Welcome to the gallery, Mr. Kenn Harper of Iqaluit.
Continuing on, Mr. Joanasie.
It states here that they appoint to the court process as to how many foster parents.
How many guardians do you have under that program?
There are 10 at this time.
There are 2 public guardians. There are 3 that were received through the court process. In 1 month there are 3.
Thank you for your response. Moving on to a different topic. Child and Family Services Act was amended during the third assembly.
Have the amendments improved how the legislation is implemented to date? If so, how?
The legislation was amended and we are still working on it. In order for the members to understand where we are at I’d like to have Mr. Dudding respond to the question.
To remind the member that the Child and Family Services Act amendments only came into force in January of this year so the context of this is early days yet I think would probably be the most appropriate answer.
However, that being said, remind the member that what the amendment set out to do was to expand the grounds under which children can be considered in need of protection to incorporate the Inuit Societal Values specifically into the legislation, to ensure that we had a longer period of time around extended care agreements for young people so that we can carry them up to their 26th birthday.
These are all good provisions that I think as we see the legislation playing itself out over time I think they will be of great benefit.
I would just add again, early days yet.
The one thing that may be of interest and Deputy Awa has already made reference to it is that we have now had our first experience in a court decision where the specific application of the lens of Inuit societal values around the decision of the court was applied.
We are very pleased to see that because it really does then compel the courts and the department to be ensuring that we’re not only, as the concern has been expressed, paying lip service to these things but in fact are incorporated in a very real way into the applications that we are making before the courts and the plans that we are making on behalf of children.
I thank you for the answer. Some of them are very interesting to find out and we would like to also find out (interpretation): he future that the Inuit societal values are followed in the workplace and in their operation of their work and I would also like to ask another question.
It states that one of your department’s priorities in recent years has been to implement Iligitiaslnik Family Violence Prevention Strategy.
How much funding has been allocated to this specific initiative?
With respect to the funding I will get Mr. Kolot to respond to that question.
We try to get staff with respect to this program that we are doing there is also... I will get Mr. Kolot to respond to that question, Mr. Chairman.
This was a new initiative that was identified this year and there are many competing needs within the department we have allocated a portion of about $120,000 for the strategy imitative which covers a variety of operating and maintenance expenses.
When of your department’s priorities in 2013-2014 on page 124 in Inuktitut states that in the fourth bullet with respect to Iligitiaslnik Family Violence Prevention Strategy they are working with others to assess programs with respect to funding for women’s shelters. They said that they finished in June, 2013.
It also states that there is a strategy. The strategy is being implemented. The implementation has been delayed for a year because they have to have staff in place.
What kind of staff are you talking about?
I thank the member for his question about the Family Abuse Intervention Strategy.
Like I said earlier, that we had tried to fill this position, but we haven’t had any success.
In June 2014, we figured that we will fill the position to staff the women’s shelter, and for the Family Violence Prevention Strategy so that the families can be protected.
Mr. Joanasie (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the minister for her response.
My last question, Mr. Chairman.
In one of your department’s priorities in 2014-2015, there are two items that you talk about, the second that you will be working with the Ilagiittiarniq Family Violence Prevention Strategy and they will also be reviewing the custom adoption.
Can you give us an idea of how you are going to work together on those two things?
We will be working with the RCMP, Nunavut Tunngavik, and Inuit organizations, such as QIA, the society that work on the women’s shelters, the Qulliq Status of Women Council, Pauktuutit, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Family Services to work on the Family Violence Prevention Strategy.
For custom adoption, we know that we will be working with Nunavut Tunngavik offhand. When I get some more information, I will provide more answers to you later on.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you. (interpretation ends) I will use my discretion as the chair and allow you to ask additional questions on this item.
Ms. Angnakak: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for allowing me to have my second round.
I want to ask a question that relates to what my colleague, Mr. Mikkungwak, the chair, touched on earlier. It’s to do with aftercare. When a child has gone through the foster care system, what kind of support does the department provide for that person that had gone through the system?
I will get Mr. Dudding to come and sit at the witness table.
Do you want him to respond?
The extended support agreements are agreements that we can enter into with young people who are aging out of the system, again, up to their 26th birthday.
Again, there’s a range of supports that are in that program, but they would include, for example, depending upon the needs of the youth, continuing contact with a social worker around advice, support, and counselling.
For example, not in all cases but in some cases, if the youth is remaining in a foster home, we would provide financial support to that foster home and around other aspects of the young person’s life, depending upon what their education or training or career goals are in terms of ensuring that in the first instance, they are getting a referral and support to the kind of appropriate programs that would be available to any young person, things of universal application, but then also ensuring our role as we’re no longer a guardian for that person because, of course, they’re an adult in that sense.
In terms of our role, then, around ensuring if there were additional issues or problems that they were encountering, we would work them to make the necessary arrangements to provide those kinds of services like any parent would.
Thank you for that answer. One of the things too that seems to come to mind when a child has gone through the foster care system, it can be very mentally challenging for them, especially if they’ve had to go through many homes and their care hasn’t been consistent.
What measures do you have in place to deal with this?
Sometimes they can’t be cared for in a foster home because they are mentally hurt, we sometimes bring them down south to get some counselling, but they usually return.
I will have Peter Dudding supplement my response.
For children who have experienced trauma and disruption in their growing-up years, certainly, responding to their psychological and emotional needs is part of what we need to pay particular attention to while they’re in the care of the director.
It includes some of the earlier discussion we had around the kind of training and support for the foster parents.
In addition to that, depending upon the nature and the kind of professional help that is needed and the trauma, a referral through mental health services for kind of appropriate psychological assessment and counselling is also, again, part of the service that we would provide in those circumstances.
First of all, I would like some clarification to the minister in relation to the operations and my inability to understand some of the policies.
I will use an example like the closing of the centre in Iqaluit that used to be open.
Who has the final say? Are these major decisions handled by the minister or do they have to go to cabinet?
I would like my deputy minister to answer this particular question.
Earlier today I stated that it was under preparation prior to us taking over responsibility in terms of how it could be improved.
After that has been completed social services workers, people who run it, were diminished their senior staff dealt with the decision.
Mr. Enook (interpretation): Thank you for that answer.