Global News: Following the recommendations of several child welfare experts, New Brunswick MLAs made several changes to a major piece of child welfare legislation.
Over two days of hearings, child and youth advocate Kelly Lamrock, along with Fredericton based child welfare organization Partners for Youth and the head of the New Brunswick Association of Social Workers all advocated for the inclusion of a definition of child’s rights in the bill, among other improvements. “This is a truly important piece of legislation that is a great improvement over the 40-year-old Family Services Act,” said Geraldine Baiani, president of the New Brunswick Association of Social Workers.
“Recognizing the improvement that it is, we truly hope that the legislation will be adopted either with a new preamble or amendments to add the rights.” And legislators did just that, passing eight amendments to make various improvements to the bill recommended by experts.
The amendments added the right of children:
- to access education, health care and
- to be consulted and heard when it comes to decisions being made about their placement.
- require the tracking of educational achievement, post-secondary attendance and
- adverse events, such as involvement with the criminal justice system.
- A passage similar to Jordan’s principle — the requirement that Indigenous youth get access to timely services — was also added.
The amended bill was passed by the committee on economic policy unanimously and will receive third reading and royal assent on Friday.
The Child and Youth Well-Being Act was initially tabled on May 18 and was hailed as a landmark overhaul of the province’s child welfare system. New powers are given to social workers through the legislation that allow them to act preventatively to intervene if they believe a child to be at risk. The government billed the new law as child-centred, and noted that a mandatory five-year review of the act would ensure it stayed up to date.
On Thursday, the committee also heard from two Indigenous-focused social work experts, who said that while they were consulted as the bill was being drafted, none of their suggestions made it into the final piece of legislation. Samantha Paul with Mi’gmaq Child and Family Services of New Brunswick said the proposed legislation doesn’t reflect the differences in Indigenous-based child welfare work.
“We are forced to work in a system that doesn’t recognize culture and identity,” Paul said. “We are still seen as baby snatchers.”
Michelle Sacobie, the director of Kingsclear Child and Family Services, said the primary goal when dealing with Indigenous kids is to try and keep them within the community.
Paul says the changes to the act are a great upgrade for for social workers working for the department of social development, but that First Nations-based social workers will have to work around it in order to keep children in their communities.
“We will do what we need to do,” she said.