‘Government-wide effort’ needed to fix broken foster system: premier

One day after the federal auditor general’s office published its latest report on the state of Nunavut’s foster care system, Premier John Main pledged his government will do better.

“This report is upsetting,” Main said during a news conference at the legislative assembly Wednesday. “The responsibilities that lie with our government are serious and we need to live up to the duties that have been entrusted to us.”

Deputy auditor general Andrew Hayes tabled the report, Foster Care in Nunavut, in Nunavut’s legislative assembly on Tuesday. The federal auditor general has the authority to review the effectiveness of Government of Nunavut programs.

The document outlines the Family Services department’s failures to maintain regular contact with children in care, to screen and monitor foster homes, and to maintain reliable information on the number of children in the system and where they had been placed — a problem that was highlighted in the auditor general’s 2023 report.

“The Department of Family Services did not provide timely and effective foster care services to protect and support the safety and well-being of children,” Hayes said during a news conference Tuesday afternoon. “It could not consistently demonstrate that basic safeguards intended to protect children and place them in safe environments were being followed.”

The department’s failure to solve the lapse in data stems from the department staff’s lack of training on its centralized reporting system, known as Matrix, Hayes said.

“We saw differences between the manual lists that the department is working with and the information in Matrix. That is a problem,” Hayes said.

Family Services Minister Gwen Healey Akearok said that is changing.

“The Matrix training has been unrolling throughout the territory,” she said at the news conference. “There’s another one happening this month.”

She said 90 per cent of front-line staff and 80 per cent of other staff have been trained so far.

“We know we need that evidence. We need strong documentation. We need excellent records,” Healey Akearok said. “Every foster file is now in one system.”

She said that 97 per cent of home studies have been completed and, as of October, 82 per cent of annual reviews had been completed.

“There’s still work to be done,” she added.

The auditor general will release another report in the spring of 2027, on the department’s “quality assurance work,” Hayes said. 

Nunavummiut will see improvements in that report thanks to “a government-wide effort,” Main said. “Our sincere hope is that future audits will show real improvement.”

Asked if any staff will lose their jobs over the report’s findings, Main said he will not share that publicly.

“From the upper management on down, there is an expectation that you will fulfill your duties, and if not, you’ll face the consequences,” he said.