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| Skeena MLA Ellis Ross explored a number of themes Tuesday as part of a Committee session related to the process of Children in Care in British Columbia (from the Legislature video stream) |
Skeena MLA Ellis Ross brought some personal notes to an important topic of a committee session of the Children and Family Development Ministry on Tuesday, speaking towards the theme of the process of Indigenous Children in care of the Ministry and inquiring further as to how the province makes its decisions on where to place those that are to be placed in care.
His opening remarks to the committee provided for the background to his line of questions that would follow during the course of his thirty five minutes of participation with the committee session.
Since starting this job…. Actually, let's go back 12 years. Indigenous children in care. That's where I first came upon the issue of Indigenous children in care of the province and, to a certain extent, in the care of the federal government. I've got to say: it's a really disturbing file to deal with. Not just in my area but in B.C. and Canada, in general. I've heard it characterized as crisis levels across Canada.
Even as a council, we understood how complicated and how stressful it is to try to deal with it, because it becomes so personal, and in many cases, it becomes political. Our council decided to engage in two files. And then, never again. We're going to turn it over to staff and just leave it at that.
But in the job that I've taken on now as the representative for Skeena, it's all coming back. I'm getting a number of cases here, in Terrace, regarding Indigenous children in care. I've read the Ed John report. I've read a number of articles on this issue. I've read the policy in terms of children and youth in care. I understand that we can't talk about case files here. But just in terms of the policy, there seems to be a number of priorities. One is make sure the child is in connection with language and culture, for instance. And then there's also placing of the child, youth in extended family or aboriginal community.
Can I ask the minister: in terms of the steps, what is the priority in terms of determining the well-being of Indigenous children in care? What is the very first step? Because there are a number of priorities I see, and there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason of what is the actual first step in terms of the child's safety.
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| Katrine Conroy the Minister of Children and Family Development had a lengthy day in committee on Tuesday, as MLA's made a number of inquiries related to Children in Care in BC (from the Legislature video stream) |
As part of her reply Minister Katrine Conroy observed of the three main considerations that the Ministry applies towards their approach on care.
The first the safety of the children, the second that of keeping them with their family and the third in respect to culture and community.
She traced some of the considerations that Ministry staff make, observing how 90 percent of those that the Ministry comes into contact with are placed with some member of their immediate family, with only ten percent of that number having to make use of extended family or other options.
In response to an inquiry from the Skeena MLA as to how children are placed, Ms. Conroy outlined the scope of the current policy.
I just want to clarify with the member. I've spoken to a lot of youth since I've been minister, and they are very passionate. These are Indigenous youth who were taken into care, and they were very, very passionate about talking about the fact that they lost the ability to stay connected to their community. They lost the ability to learn about their culture, and it profoundly affected them. We have to take that into consideration.
That said that as they grew up, some never even knew they had an Indigenous culture, and now they're learning about it, and they're saying how they had a hole in their lives that has suddenly been filled. So we have to make sure that…. I think it is important that Indigenous children maintain that culture — that they're part of that community. I also think it's very important that children, if they can't stay with their parents, stay with their extended family, whether that's grandparents or aunties and uncles. I think we can do both.
I think it's for the better of those children and youth that we do both and that we can ensure that that Indigenous culture is learned and it supports them. The youth I've talked to…. I've talked to many. We have an amazing group of youth on our Youth Advisory Council. They talk about it often — the ones who didn't get that opportunity to learn their culture, what a hole it was in their lives.
We want to make sure that that doesn't happen anymore, that those kids learn that. I think that's a really important thing for them to have as part of their lives.
The Minister also noted some of the new programs that the government has been putting in place, such as directing increased funding towards caregivers such as grandparents so they can have the resources to take care of any children to be placed in their care as opposed to being shifted to forms of Foster care.
By way of general observations from his constituency Mr. Ross then outlined some of the frustrations of those who have outlined their situation to him and his staff, noting that he had specifically asked to join the Committee to gain a better understanding of the approach of the ministry.
You know what? A lot of these people have been talking to staff for the last three years and they've gotten nowhere. I've actually joined the children and care committee just so I can understand the inner workings it to see if I could change it from the inside. These are real cases, and they're not isolated. They have the same thread going through all of them. I do understand why. You're not going to win in this equation. You're not going to win.
The only thing I offer you is that if you do follow your policy, and you do your best efforts to make sure the child is in a good, safe environment and the well-being of that child is protected, I'm behind you 100 percent. I'll go out in public and I'll say, "Yep, it's probably not what everybody wanted but it's the best case for the child." In this case, it's probably not the best case scenario for the parent. It's probably not the best case scenario for the government. It's probably not the best case scenario for me, but it works for the child. I think the one thing that's missing here is the well-being of the child. Children are crying because they're confused.
The government is not afraid to go to court. The government's got deep pockets. They can go to court for years. But these extended family members and immediate family members don't have deep pockets, especially Indigenous people who are living in poverty. They don't have the means to go to court for a year or two, so most of them just give up.
In terms of the policy development, is the government considering court as a fourth, fifth or sixth party, down the line?
Towards those inquiries, Ms. Conroy noted how the focus of trying to keep the families out of court now appears to be a guiding principle for the ministry, with the Minister how the ministry works hard to avoid the court process if at all possible.
The committee session which lasted close to six hours, covered an impressive amount of material on the at times very controversial issue of children in care, with the line of questions from committee members and answers from the Minister helping to shed some light on the many pressures that are found from those on the front lines of the Ministry's care program, as well as the foster families that offer their homes for care and of the families that are impacted by decisions that are made.
You can explore many of the themes through the Archive of the discussion here.
As well, the video archive of the day's proceedings make for a helpful resource to try and get a better understanding of one of the most important aspects of the impact of government decisions on those who are perhaps the most vulnerable in society.
It's well worth a watch to gain some understanding of the larger picture facing Ministry officials and families across the province.
For a look at some of the work of the Skeena MLA at the Legislature see our archive page here.
As well, we feature wider overview of political issues out of Victoria from our archive page.
Cross posted from the North Coast Review.
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