Nunavut youth advocate gets down to business

Sherry McNeil-Mulak, Nunavut’s representative for children and youth, submitted her first annual report in the legislature this week. They underspend their budget on the first year by more than half but that was mostly they hadn’t had a chance to hire all their staff. (FILE PHOTO)

After ramping up her office and then officially opening its doors in September 2015, Nunavut’s representative for children and youth, Sherry McNeil-Mulak, says that her office has dealt with approximately 61 advocacy cases so far.

“I would rate them from moderately complex to highly complex,” McNeil-Mulak told Nunatsiaq News on the issues that her office has dealt with to date.

These so far seem to point to a general lack of knowledge among Nunavummiut about the programs offered by the GN, she said.

“What it speaks to is kid’s lives are complicated. Often youth require more than one service at a time and their life and their needs often need multiple services that intersect with each other,” McNeil-Mulak said.

“That holistic approach is something we’ve observed that tends to be missing.”

Approximately 60 per cent of the office’s caseload has come from within Iqaluit, she added.

Nunavut’s Children and Youth Act, passed in 2013, established the representative’s role to advocate for the rights and interests of children and youth within the services provided by the Government of Nunavut.

That bill had its share of controversy, with then-Rankin Inlet North MLA Tagak Curley criticizing the Child and Youth Act — and the representative position — as “just another mouthpiece.”

McNeil-Mulak’s first year of operation was all about building groundwork ahead of opening its doors in September last year, she said.

That’s according to the advocacy body’s 2014-15 annual report tabled at Nunavut’s legislature May 30.

“Our efforts and accomplishments… will ground our office’s work for years to come,” McNeil-Mulak wrote in that document’s introduction.

McNeil-Mulak spoke with Nunatsiaq News about the annual report and how the children and youth representative’s role has grown since 2014 — now into its third fiscal year of operation.

“Just the sheer magnitude of work to arrive at opening day [in September 2015], that was one of the big challenges,” McNeil-Mulak said.

A hurdle for the independent office: establishing a working relationship with various Government of Nunavut departments, which the 2014-15 annual report said “proved challenging.”

But while McNeil-Mulak clarified that her office “invested a great deal of time and energy [in its first year],… it was nothing that we weren’t able to get together on and get back on track with.”

“That investment seems to have paid off. Overall I’d say we’re satisfied to date,” McNeil-Mulak told Nunatsiaq News.

“That being said, there are always hiccups.”

McNeil-Mulak said administrative start-up demands have finally given way to hands-on work with children and youth and the office’s mandate is now beginning to take priority.

That work is difficult to quantify at this point since the current annual report covers 2014-15.

A truer representation of her office’s work will be apparent when the current fiscal year’s annual report is tabled, she added.

“[2016-17] will be our true first year of business at this office, or regular business for this office,” she said.

To that end, the Children and Youth Representative saw a budget increase in 2016 to $2.1 million, which will continue for the next three years.

According to its 2014-15 annual report, less than half of the original $1.6 million budget was spent. More than $353,000 — or 22 per cent — was directed to the development of a website, a policy manual and legal services.

McNeil-Mulak said the remaining surplus was attributed mostly to unspent salary dollars as the office worked to fully staff itself during that year.

Five positions were allotted to the office originally, but that has since grown to nine positions.

McNeil-Mulak confirmed eight of those positions are now filled, with three positions occupied by Nunavut Land Claims Agreement beneficiaries.

McNeil-Mulak says Nunavummiut can expect more public outreach in the future as her office focuses on its mandate.

“We’re always championing the message that kids have rights, that’s important for people to know,” she said.

The Representative for Children and Youth office is located on the third floor of the Qamutiq building in downtown Iqaluit.

“We’re here and open,” said McNeil-Mulak, inviting anyone with questions to visit the office and consult with staff.