Children & Youth

Child care:

Albertans deserve high quality, low-cost and development-centered child care and early intervention programs. Alberta’s families deserve reduced childcare fees and an increase in the number of affordable spaces for working families. Alberta could cap daily fees at $26 per day per child if it implemented a funding model similar to that of Manitoba, which supports childcare at a rate similar to the national average.

The government must fund quality day care programs adequately. A Canadian Labour Congress’ report card assessing childcare across the country, gave a D grade to Alberta. Moreover, the Child Care Subsidy Program had been improperly applied resulting in inequities. In many situations, parents were denied adequate funding. In fact, the Ministry of Children and Youth Services was knowingly using two different forms to determine parental subsidies for childcare and directing workers to minimize payouts to qualified recipients.

Child Services

The government must ensure the protection of children and youth in care and of all Albertans.

Alberta’s foster care system is currently in crisis. The government’s failure to protect children in its care resulted in the death of a child in January 2009, traumatic injury to child in care from the Tsuu Tina First Nation, and the repeated physical and sexual abuse of children in care. The government’s failure to ensure proper supervision of high-risk children in care has also put other Albertans at risk. In fact, children in care were charged in four recent homicides in a four week period in the Edmonton Area.

The government continues to ignore the ongoing abuse of children in their care. Reports obtained by the NDP caucus demonstrate the use of prohibited restraints, inappropriate placements and neglect. These documents also reported the continued use of face-down restraints and placement of non-sexual kids in homes for children with a history of acting-out sexual behaviours increasing the risk of sexual abuse. The government must increase funding to overcome the severe shortage in the number of placements and reduce the risks involved when there are shortages. They must strive to enforce and clarify existing rules regarding use of ”restrictive procedures and intrusive measures” for children in care (i.e. physical restraints, psychotropic medication, confinement in locked rooms, denial of contact with family).

Child and Youth Advocate

The Child and Youth Advocate is governed by the Child, Youth and Family Enhancement Act. The mandate of the office is to: represent children and youth served under the Act and to provide information and advice to the Minister and the Minister's staff with respect to the welfare and the interests of, and the provision of services to those children and youth. The Advocate reports to the Minister, not the Legislature

For years the NDP Opposition has called on this government to make the Child and Youth Advocate an independent officer for the Legislature. Children need to know that they have someone speaking out and fighting for their needs who is not at the mercy of the minister. Alberta is the only province where the advocate is hired and fired by the minister which puts the advocate in a unsecure and potentially volatile situation. The government’s refusal to make the advocate independent undermines the potential to advocate for children. This also shows that the ministry is more concerned with censoring information than protecting children. The Advocate’s reports should be released in a timely way and the quarterly reports should be made public. This government’s lack of transparency and accountability also shows that they fail to take the issue of child advocacy seriously. Government must free the Advocate of the minister’s control.

Foster Care

The government failed to implement the foster care review’s recommendations despite their commitment to do so. One of these recommendations was to stop arbitrary placements that ignored the four child limit for foster homes. However, it appears that there is at least one foster home in Alberta with more than eight children. They also did not improve the process of training and licensing for foster parents.

The government must proceed with the implementation of the foster care review’s recommendation in order to improve the life conditions of children in care. We cannot ignore the fate of our most vulnerable children.