NUNAVUT
When Speaker George Qulaut tabled the 2015-2018 business plan for the Office of the Representative for Children and Youth in the legislative assembly March 12, the office came one step closer to becoming a reality.
The independent office, with its mandate of representing the voice of children and youth and ensuring their rights and interests are protected and advanced in relation to government services, has been more than 10 years in the making.
With critical emphasis placed on such a need by the auditor general in reports released in 2011 and 2014, the office can't open soon enough.
"I am concerned that children are not getting the level of protection and care set out in the Child and Family Services Act. Addressing these recommendations will require sustained effort and attention by the Department of Family Services, and collaboration with other departments," said auditor general Michael Ferguson.
The new office should help improve a situation that has seen few changes in the time between reports.
Sherry McNeil-Mulak took on the job of child and youth advocate last June and has since set to work creating an office in Iqaluit from scratch.
From furniture, to staffing - she will have five staff - to a 20-page, 100-item task list, McNeil-Mulak is putting it all together for the children and youth of the territory.
"Most of the tasks, I have to say, are medium to large in scope. It's quite a challenge, but an exciting opportunity. This is a brand-new office and not just a brand-new office but a brand-new service that this territory is going to offer children and youth," said McNeil-Mulak. "With those two factors combined, there's a significant amount of work to do to get the office open."
So far, McNeil-Mulak has hired one of two child and youth advocacy specialists and a manager of communications and public awareness.
"The advocacy specialists are very much our front-line people. They're on the ground, they're taking cases that come in, they're dealing with individual families and children and youth and inquiries that come into the office. They're key members of this team," said McNeil-Mulak.
There will also be a director of child and youth advocacy services, overseeing the specialists, and a senior systemic investigator, responsible for looking into situations outside individual cases related to bigger system issues in government, "whether it be (issues) with policy, with process around programs, or legislation," said McNeil-Mulak.
Staff will be travelling into communities, with the intention of being present, visible and available.
"It's a part of the responsibility of all our team members that we get out and we engage. It's part of where we're at now, having those discussions and determining what that travel schedule will look like and how we prioritize communities in terms of who we go to first and why," said McNeil-Mulak.
Once there, adds McNeil-Mulak, the job will be to listen to the voice of children and youth in communities, although anyone can speak up.
The act that created the office, Bill 40, has a storied past. Cambridge Bay MLA Keith Peterson brought the need for a child advocate to the attention of the legislative assembly in 2004 when he was first elected. Re-elected in 2008, he garnered the support of then-premier Eva Aariak. After extensive consultation and much discussion in the legislative assembly, the bill was finally set to move forward in September 2013. Commissioner Edna Elias gave assent to the act on the 17th, the final day of the fall session.
The 2015-2018 budget allocates $1,570,000 annually, $881,000 in salaries and $689,000 for operations and maintenance.
"I'm relieved that's it's finally going to open," said Peterson. "It took a lot of patience. A lot of support had to be gained over the years. And we had to ensure it would be culturally appropriate for Nunavut. Children of Nunavut needed an independent voice."
Inuit societal values are entrenched in the act and McNeil-Mulak says the office is grounded in those values, and they are a part of all discussions.
"The act is very focused on family life. The voice of the child is very important, but so is the role of families and how the office can support that. The importance of family in a child's life, and that's going to look different in every case. That appears in the United Nations conventions, which guides us, but it's a more obviously presented in our own act."
Peterson hopes the office will officially open sometime in the early fall.
Peterson says he first realized the need for a children and youth advocate when he was mayor of Cambridge Bay.
"A lot of parents would come to me saying their children had been apprehended and taken away. Grandparents would come to me and say 'My grandchildren were apprehended in Ontario or B.C.' When I was elected MLA, I thought I could get the answers but I was rebuffed because of privacy issues. The advocate has the authority to dig in," he says.
As mayor, he had learned about independent advocates, who have the authority to delve into issues. With Nunavut opening an office, the only remaining holdouts are the Northwest Territories and Prince Edward Island.
"We're here to protect the voice and the rights of children and youth. We want to empower children and youth to use their voice," said McNeil-Mulak.
Because, as Peterson notes, in a territory of 36,000 people, 55 to 60 per cent are under 20.
"That's our future. We really have to support them, care for them and nourish them."
