Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I too would like to thank the department for bringing this very important bill forward. I’d also like to thank committee for their thorough review of Bill 47, as well as all stakeholders and community members, residents and interested groups who provided very strong feedback and recommendations that I believe committee tried to address to the best of their ability with concurrence from the department of course.

In the bill itself there were five motions that the Minister concurred with. There’s a lot of history with this bill dating right back to 1977, but I also want to...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do have a committee motion. I move that the Government of the Northwest Territories provide a comprehensive response to this report within 120 days.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the members of the Standing Committee on Social Programs.

The Standing Committee on Social Programs thanks all stakeholders who provided comments on Bill 47 or attended the public hearings.

The committee advises that it supports Bill 47 as amended and reprinted and presents it for consideration to Committee of the Whole.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Your Standing Committee on Social Programs would like to read in our report on Bill 47, An Act to amend the Child and Family Services Act. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I made a couple of statements in this House about some of the great people that we have in Inuvik and today I want to continue that kind of a trend of Member’s statements that I have been doing over the last couple of weeks.

I too was able to attend the Premier’s Award of Excellence this morning and I would like to congratulate all individual and team award recipients. I want to state that their contribution to the government, to the residents of the North and to our culture is much appreciated.

I would like to recognize and appreciate one person in particular. This...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just for clarity, the committee motion that I am bringing in today, we did read in our report into the House earlier, got it read for Committee of the Whole, and we haven’t dealt with that report yet but I just wanted to bring the committee motion forward now to address that committee would like a response in 120 days to that report.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think it’s a very great day in terms of the child and family services system. As you heard from my colleagues, it has been a very long process getting to where we are today with the amendments that we made and some of the motions that we’re bringing forth after listening to our residents in the Northwest Territories.

I think what really sparked a lot of us moving forward but also work from our Regular Members and not just the standing committee was that the OAG report and all the findings that were in there that were very hard to, I guess you could say hard to take in or...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The motion that is before us is just to ensure that we do get a response from the government. The report was read into the House yesterday and a lot of committee members and Regular Members also made some good response to it. I think we addressed a lot of the concerns from stakeholders as well as residents of the Northwest Territories and look forward to moving this motion and getting a response from the government.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to waive Rule 100(4) to have Committee Report 18-17(5), Standing Committee on Social Programs Report on the Review of Bill 47: An Act to Amend the Child and Family Services Act, moved into Committee of the Whole for consideration later today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Unanimous consent granted

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Standing Committee on Social Programs is pleased to provide its Report on the Review of Bill 47: An Act to Amend the Child and Family Services Act and commend it to the House.

Bill 47, An Act to Amend the Child and Family Services Act, makes enhancements to the Child and Family Services Act. The bill is a long-awaited response to the statutory review by the Standing Committee on Social Programs in 2010.

The bill proposes to expand services offered to youth, require Aboriginal organizations to be notified in advance of child-apprehension hearings or youth-protection...