EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
I think this probably will be my last time in front of you during this Legislative Assembly as Minister of Justice and my last bill that will go through before the next government is formed.
I thank you all for all the work that you have done with your committee in reviewing bills that have come forward by Justice.
I want to thank you today for reviewing Bill 32.
I think it’s very important that we support and we give the tools to our legal services board to provide legal council to all citizens in Nunavut, and we are doing that here today.
I will also support anything that we can do into the future to increase that support.
I would like to thank my witness, Mr. Tarnow, for being here today, and all the people at Justice that had been working back in forth with you and your committee on this bill.
Thank you, (interpretation ends) Deputy Tarnow. (interpretation) Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses out.
Following the list of items referred to the Committee of the Whole, we will be dealing with Bill 40.
Just before Minister Aariak goes to the witness table, we will take a five-minute break.
>>Committee recessed at 16:13 and resumed at 16:22
Bill 40 – Representative for Children and Youth Act – Consideration in Committee
Chairman (Mr. Enook)(interpretation): Welcome.
At this time, we will continue with the consideration of Bill 40.
Does the committee agree that Madam Minister Aariak and her officials go to the witness table?
Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the minister and her witnesses in.
Just before we continue, Mr. Curley has his hand up.
Mr. Curley: Thank you. (interpretation) Mr. Chairman, you asked whether the committee agrees for the minister to be escorted to the witness table. I nay’d, just to let you know, (interpretation ends) for the record.
We will have it recorded.
Madam Minister, please welcome.
On my right is Daniel Vandermeulen, who is my Deputy Minister for Executive and Intergovernmental Affairs, and to my left is Anne Macintosh, who is a legal drafter from the Department of Justice.
Chairman: Qujannamiik, Madam Premier. (interpretation ends) Welcome, Mr. Vandermeulen and Ms. Macintosh.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and committee members.
Thank you for this opportunity to address Bill 40, the Representative for Children and Youth Act.
I would like the talk about the roles and responsibilities of the representative for children and youth so that we all understand what this position is all about.
As MLAs, we all care about the services our children, youth, and their families receive from the Government of Nunavut.
I know that families sometimes feel that they have not been treated fairly by government.
This is why we need a representative for children and youth.
The representative will be independent of the government.
The representative will be watching how the government fulfills its responsibilities.
The representative will help children, youth, and their families deal with the system to get the services they need.
And the representative will keep us, as MLAs, informed about what is going on, what programs and services need to be improved so that our government can better serve children and youth.
We all agree that the job of raising and caring for our children and youth belongs to families and communities. They create the foundation that will carry our young people through the rest of their lives. We have created a new Department of Family Services to bring many of these services together, but many other departments – Health, Education, Culture and Heritage – all deliver important services to children and youth.
What could the government do to better serve children, youth, and their families?
The representative for children and youth will serve as a watchdog who will make sure our children and youth receive the best services and are heard when decisions are being made about them.
This is what the representative for children and youth will be there to do.
I want to be very clear on this.
The representative for children and youth will not take over the job of the Department of Family Services or any government department that provides programs and services to children and youth. The representative for children and youth will not investigate parents, families, or caregivers or tell them what to do.
Children, youth, and their families will be able to come to the representative with their concerns about the services being provided to them by government and the representative will work with them to resolve the problems they are encountering.
The representative will assist children, youth, and families in finding government services that will best suit their needs.
The representative will be able to talk directly to the senior government officials responsible for those services.
The Yukon and almost all of the provinces have chosen to put in place a representative for children and youth. They have recognized that a representative who is independent of the government and who will advocate on behalf of children and youth is important. They also recognize that elected officials must stay informed and get good advice regarding the well-being of children and youth so that the government better provides services to children and youth.
The representative for children and youth will, in many ways, be much like the Languages Commissioner, who watches over government and acts to protect our languages. The representative for children and youth will be appointed based on the recommendation of MLAs.
The representative will report directly to MLAs and produce an annual report to the Legislative Assembly. The representative will be able to make recommendations to the Legislative Assembly and we, as MLAs, will be able to ask questions and respond to those.
I hope this helps make clear what the roles and responsibilities of this new position will be.
The representative for children and youth will be there to support children, youth, and their families.
This bill, as we know, has been the subject of much study by the standing committee and also subject to comprehensive public consultations. You will recall that in addition to the consultations undertaken by the standing committee, the Government of Nunavut developed Bill 40 based on comprehensive consultations conducted in person, by teleconference, and by radio with shareholders throughout Nunavut.
We also established a key working relationship with Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated. NTI recently reaffirmed their support for the Representative for Children and Youth Act by letter dated August 15, 2013.
This letter once again confirms NTI’s support first indicated by letter June 1, 2012.
I hope you will also give the representative for children and youth your support.
Yes, I have opening comments. Can I proceed?
As Chair of the Standing Committee on Legislation, I am pleased to provide opening comments on behalf of my colleagues as we begin consideration of Bill 40, the proposed Representative for Children and Youth Act.
(interpretation) Mr. Chairman, as you will recall, Bill 40 received second reading on June 7, 2012 and was subsequently referred to the standing committee for consideration.
For the benefit of the permanent public record and Nunavummiut who are following our proceedings today, I wish to take this opportunity to provide an overview of the standing committee’s deliberations and determinations concerning Bill 40.
Mr. Chairman, over the past year, the standing committee has given careful consideration to Bill 40 and has engaged in an extensive dialogue with the sponsoring minister concerning the initiative.
As members will recall, a motion was considered and adopted by the Legislative Assembly during our recent spring sitting to extend the standing committee’s review period for Bill 40.
The passage of the motion enabled a subcommittee of members to hold public hearings on Bill 40 in three communities during June of this year.
I wish to take this opportunity to express my appreciation to my colleagues from Amittuq, Baker Lake, Pangnirtung, and Quttiktuq for participating in these hearings.
(interpretation ends) Mr. Chairman, the amended and reprinted version of Bill 40 that is before the Committee of the Whole today reflects a number of amendments that were made to the bill during the sponsoring minister’s recent appearance before the standing committee on the occasion of its clause-by-clause consideration of the bill.
The first amendment concerned the definition of “youth” under the proposed legislation.
As members will recall, Bill 51, An Act to Amend the Child and Family Services Act, was considered and passed by the Legislative Assembly during our recent spring sitting.
Bill 51 amended the Child and Family Services Act in part to provide for the extension of support agreements for youth up to age 26.
The amendment to Bill 40, the proposed Representative for Children and Youth Act, reflects this change.
The second amendment to Bill 40 amended clause 5 to strengthen the provisions concerning the representative for children and youth’s obligation to apply a number of principles in the performance of his or her duties and powers, including the principle that “relationships between children and youth and their families must be respected and, wherever possible, supported and strengthened.”
Clause 5 was also amended to provide for a more flexible and less prescriptive approach to the application of Inuit societal values.
Mr. Chairman, the other amendments to Bill 40 concerned such administrative matters as superannuation for the representative for children and youth and the role of the Management and Services Board in relation to the operations of the Office of the Representative for Children and Youth.
(interpretation) Mr. Chairman, at the conclusion of the standing committee’s clause-by-clause consideration of Bill 40, a motion was adopted to report the bill back to the House as amended.
Mr. Chairman, that concludes my opening comments. I anticipate that individual members will have comments as we proceed.
Just before we begin our deliberations, I just want to remind members that according to Rule 77(1), you have 10 minutes to speak, and according to Rule 77(2), subject to the discretion of the Chair, a member may speak more than once to a matter under discussion but not until every member wishing to speak has spoken.
I suggest to members that wherever possible you ask your detailed questions during the clause-by-clause review of the bill. Are there any general comments?
Mr. Tapardjuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Welcome, minister and your officials.
With respect to Bill 40, I have some opening comments to make to their opening remarks.
I agree that the children, youth, and their families have to have good service from the government. We would all like to have good service from the government.
I’m sure and I have said that this is being done by the social workers.
Even up to today, there is no real Inuk social worker employed in the government.
The government has the responsibility to protect children because they cannot protect themselves.
They have given us that job because they cannot do their responsibilities.
In May, Mr. Chairman, we made an amendment to the Child and Family Services Act with respect to children and youth, and we wanted to be able to have it made in Nunavut.
What they did was said, that they would put the Inuit societal values into the Act, but it doesn’t say exactly how they’re going to do that. The government hasn’t said how they’re going to do it.
With that amendment, for instance, the government is saying to us that they would like to provide Bill 40 because as a government, we cannot look after or protect the children and youth. It seems like they said, “We cannot do it, so we’re going to give you the delegation to give us legislation.”
It also says in the minister’s comments that the representative for children and youth will not take the responsibilities of social workers, and they will not watch the parents and families to see if they’re taking care of their children and youth properly.
When we went to the communities, we were told by the people on more than one occasion that the parents have the responsibility to raise their children in the most appropriate way so they can have a good life.
Bill 40 states, “Because you cannot look after your children and youth properly as parents, we will look after that.”
That’s not for the non-Inuit; it is for the Inuit.
I cannot really understand that fully because that was the Act that we amended for family services.
I believe it was Bill 51, but I can’t recall the exact bill number.
Before they made the amendment, they are now providing Bill 40. I cannot understand that they produced this legislation before the amendment was made.
Mr. Chairman, the child and youth representative will “assist children, you, and families in finding government services that will best suit their needs.”
The government said that they can help the representative the best way that they can protect the children. The families work to raise their children seems to be taken away and will be provided by the representative and children and youth.
Maybe the parents will probably just leave their children alone because they know that they will be looked after by the representative. Even though they’re parents, they will no longer be concerned. I have a concern with that.
We have voiced our concerns on Bill 40 during our discussions as a committee. I’m not exactly sure how it would become better by providing or having Bill 40 in place. It already states what they’re going to do, but they made an amendment to and the government also said that they would be using Inuit societal values, but they have to be able to have the same value as the Inuit people.
Mr. Chairman, the other concern that I have is that the representative will “report directly to MLAs and produce an annual report to the Legislative Assembly.”
It doesn’t seem to make any sense. If there was an emergency that had to be dealt with by the representative having to protect the children and youth, do we have to wait for a year before he or she reports to the Legislative Assembly? Would we have to wait until they make an annual report?
Because the Child and Family Act is not amended properly, this legislation has to be done properly. If this is government legislation and if they don’t want any amendments to that Act, then they might not want to make changes to the Representative for Children and Youth Act. They can just continue on with the Act that they have.
For that reason, Mr. Chairman, I have concerns and I feel that Bill 40 is not a good piece of legislation.
Even before the Child and Family Services Act was amended, they provided us with Bill 40.
We have to work together, but if we’re going to be divided because of the government providing us with legislation, I have a concern. I wanted to make it that this legislation not be produced at this time by the government.
With the people that I went with as MLAs to Igloolik and other communities, such as Pangnirtung, we heard exactly what the Inuit thought about this during the public meeting.
You have used up all your time. I think you even went over your time by one second.
Mr. Aupaluktuq (interpretation): Thank you. I would also like to thank the members. We did have a review of the bill and had a community tour to Igloolik and Pangnirtung.
I thank all the people of those two communities for welcoming us.
The people who attended the meetings had some concerns about the family unit. It was also suggested that there should be an elder’s representative if we’re going to entertain the idea of having one for children and youth. They are also part of the vulnerable group.
I told the people of Baker Lake that this representative would make an annual report to the Legislative Assembly.
As Mr. Tapardjuk indicated, the representative for children and youth would not be taking on the responsibilities that are currently held by the Department of Family Services.
An individual in Baker Lake indicated that they were concerned if there are too many responsibilities given to this individual. They wanted to know what the reporting structure, the responsibilities, and mandate would be of this individual. The people of Baker Lake again did not all agree.
There were some pros and cons.  I would like to thank the committee members who participated in the community tour.
There were a lot of comments from Bake Lake. They indicated that if there is any other additional support they can give to the children and youth, “please go ahead” was the message that I got.
We looked through the bill, and I am sure that the concerns that we have will be answered.
As the representative from Baker Lake, they wanted me to support the passage of this bill.
That’s a general comment. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
We each have our individual thoughts, pros and cons of this bill.
(interpretation ends) Mr. Chairman, I would like to start by stating my support for Bill 40, the Representative for Children and Youth Act.
I believe that Nunavummiut should support Bill 40.
This legislation is in line with the fact that our elders and those who have passed away were the biggest supporters of self-governance for this territory. They are the main reason behind our presence in this House today.
I applaud them and thank them for their support.
The elders were concerned for future generations to come. They wish for the language, culture, and well-being for their family members to be in good hands. They believed that the rights and interests of Nunavummiut would be left under good management.
I believe that the goal of Bill 40 is completely in agreement of those wishes and beliefs.
Mr. Chairman, the spirit and intent of Bill 40 is to ensure that government services and programs are properly delivered to the children and youth of Nunavut.
Children and youth have a right to programs and services under the legislation and under the mandate of the government.
The representative for children and youth should be public office, totally independent from the executive, in other words, working from outside of the system to help protect and promote those rights.
This would include children who are in contact with our care systems, such as that delivered by social services.
Mr. Chairman, the Auditor General of Canada’s 2011 Report on Children, Youth, and Family Programs and Services in Nunavut highlighted the fact that sexual abuse was one of the most serious issues faced by children in Nunavut. Some of them were under the age of 10.
The report includes statistics showing that rates of sexual violations against children are over ten times higher than all of Canada.
Mr. Chairman, the Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit that was passed on to me from my grandmother states that a child is a child.
A young girl is not ready for the issues of womanhood.
Our society, Inuit society, must respect the principles of IQ.
On August 2003, the issue of the US Juvenile Justice Bulletin commented on the important role of children’s advocacy centres, such as the proposed office of the representative of children and youth, stating that they “play an increasingly significant role in the response to child sexual abuse and other [child] maltreatment.”
Mr. Chairman, the representative for children and youth would help to ensure that Nunavut’s young people, those who are often the most vulnerable individuals in our society and those who often cannot speak for themselves, are cared for under the good management that our elders hope for.
Mr. Chairman, the thinking that only support for Bill 40 is driven by social workers, RCMP members, teachers, and nurses is such nonsense.
I have even heard criticism that the representative for children and youth will simply be another authority, a “Super Nanny,” another outside force controlling the lives of Nunavummiut.
Mr. Chairman, one of my Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit principles that were passed onto me was that I was no different from my neighbour, whether or not he or she was a different race than me.
We all deserve to be treated fairly.
We, as MLAs, need to think with an open mind and look beyond the little pity details of what race or culture a person is from.
All residents of Nunavut have a right to receive programs and services that are delivered by our government regardless of who they are.
As adults, we have learned to recognize those rights to demand services that we are entitled to and to vote for representatives who will speak on our behalf. Children and youth may not yet have learned their rights.
They may not know how to ask for services. They cannot vote. They need a representative to act on their behalf.
Since I started in this position as an MLA for Nattilik, I have listened to my colleagues in this Assembly reading letters from high school students in their constituencies. Some of those letters are pleading for opportunities. Some presented good ideas.
A representative for children and youth would be able to support those students. The representative would make recommendations that would allow voices of all youth in Nunavut to be heard.
Mr. Chairman, it is important to keep an open mind and remember that the majority of our population are youth and children. Our future as a territory depends on those children and youth being healthy, educated, safe, and secure so that they can grow to be confident and competent members of Nunavut’s society.
Our government has a mandate to ensure that services, such as health care, education, justice, social services, shelter, and the necessities of life, as well as many others, are provided to all those who have the right to them.
The representative for children and youth will help to ensure that no one misses out from those rights.
I will be supporting Bill 40 and I ask my colleagues to support it as well.
I thank you for the opportunity to speak to the bill in the sense that I know the history of it and some of the concerns that members have brought up so far.
As far back as 2001, there was a letter from NAM, which, to me, is pretty strong when you get a letter from an organization that represents all of the mayors across the territory, which the majority would be some of the concerns about race in terms of being Inuk or non-Inuk. The majority of our mayors are Inuit representation of the population.
It is kind of nice to get that kind of support in terms of this type of legislation.
Again, it speaks to the need and sometimes how hard it is to get to where we are today, if it’s something as far back as 2001.
We also have different MLAs, the former MLA for the High Arctic, Ms. Rebekah Williams, who spoke to this issue as well. There’s Mr. Peterson.
He has been a strong advocate. The MLA from Uqqummiut, Mr. Arreak, has asked oral questions about it. When we had the Nunavut Leadership Forum, all candidates that were asked questions about the child and youth representative, which was Mr. Okalik and Mr. Curley, and Ms. Aariak, said that they would support legislation for a child and youth representative.
Again, with the second letter from NTI, a portion of it says… . For me being non-Inuk, to me, NTI is an organization that represents the Inuit of Nunavut. They’re saying that, as they had previously stated, and this is Cathy Towtoongie’s letter, the President of NTI, this legislation is a product of partnership in the truest sense of the term.
To me, a partnership means that both people and both agencies, whether it’s the Government of Nunavut or NTI, are at the table, working through the legislation to make sure it fits the territory and the needs of the territory.
Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated recognizes and appreciates the significance of this achievement.
This is a fine example of successful partnership between Nunavut Tunngavik and the Government of Nunavut, which demonstrates what can be achieved for the betterment of Inuit, especially the children and youth of Nunavut.
I think, for the remainder of my time, Mr. Chairman… . If I would have received it earlier, I would have probably tabled the document, but at 4:30, I received an email from UNICEF Canada.
Mr. Elliott: Go ahead, Mr. Curley. It’s your show.
Chairman (Mr. Enook): Actually, Mr. Elliott, it’s my show. I’m the Chair.
Excuse me, Mr. Elliott. Mr. Curley, your point of order.