Nunavut to review child protection practices

The Government of Nunavut’s health department wants to increase the number of foster parents in the territory so children under youth protection no longer have to leave their home communities for care.

That’s one goal of a two-year $1.5 million review of Nunavut’s Child and Family Services Act, health minister Tagak Curley said March 9 in committee of the whole, where MLAs looked at his department’s budget and business plan for 2010.

“During our assessment of the legislation, it definitely needs to be improved, especially here in the Inuit homeland, when we could place the children in a foster home in Nunavut or amongst their relatives…we prefer this scenario,” Curley said.

The key is increasing the number of foster parents in every Nunavut community, Curley said.

Currently, about 300 Nunavut children live with foster families. About 60 of them are located in other territories and provinces.

“When a child is apprehended, the child has to be properly cared for and that requires foster parents. This is something we have to keep in mind. These children who were sent out of Nunavut have to be dealt with, and we have to meet that challenge by increasing the number of qualified foster parents,” Curley said.

Many of the MLAs on the committee of the whole criticized the practice of sending children out of the community.

“When they’re sent out of the community, when they come back to their own community they usually have problems reconnecting with their own family,” said Adamee Komoartok, MLA for Pangnirtung.

“What we see is a foreign law being applied to our communities. Sending out children outside of the territory is not good… what we’re seeing now is the people of the communities do not want their children sent out, and outsiders working in the communities want them to be sent out.”

James Arvaluk, the MLA for Tununiq, also criticized the “stupidity of sending children out of Nunavut into southern provinces” and “social workers’ poor judgment.”

Arvaluk reminded Curley how 300 people in Pond Inlet signed a petition against taking children out of their families and community last year:

“This occurred again just recently. At seven o’clock in the morning, RCMP officers were waiting outside to apprehend a child.”

But Arvaluk also acknowledged the need to protect children.

“These children ought not to be placed in a dangerous situation, due to the selfish nature of their parents… Some parents never learn, and their children are basically in and out [of youth protection], as if they are in a revolving door,” Arvaluk said.

He also who opening daycare centres in the evening that could serve as safe havens for children at night.

John Ningark, the MLA for Akulik, also said Nunavut needs more local crisis centres to take the pressure off families and children and keep them in their communities.

“When spousal assault occurs in the home, the children are usually witnessing the incident where the father beats their mother,” Ningark said. “Some victims are sent out to other communities by the social workers, due to the dearth of local facilities. It is quite obvious that if we had shelters in the communities, then they would not have to be shipped away to another community.”

The lack of shelters also presents a hurdle to those who are trying to resolve personal issues, Ningark said.

“Perhaps if the communities had crisis shelters, we would alleviate some of the problems we currently face,” said Ningark, who tabled a petition with 150 signatures of Kugaaruk residents who want to see a shelter in their community.

Information from the committee of the whole discussions also revealed Nunavut lacks social workers to deal with the turmoil experienced by many families.

As of Jan. 31, out of 46 social worker positions, 29 were filled with indeterminate staff, 17 were vacant, 12 filled by casual staff, and one by an agency social worker.