Bill C-92 is at its beginning. Right now, we're doing an environmental community scan by engaging our communities to see what the gaps are and why kids are being taken.

When you think about child and family services, you don't just think about children and families; you think about what impacts those families: housing, the high cost of food, the ability to care for them in a clean environment and all those things. There's a lot with Bill C-92. It is an opportunity to look at those issues. Then, if you want to trigger Bill C-92, there's a lot of work to do in terms of legislation. As you know, as parliamentarians, you need to have things done right, especially when you're taking care of children and families. That takes some time.

We are working on that, but we're also working towards this other piece, which I think goes hand in hand with Bill C-92. The right to be able to take care of our families is a huge piece.

I'll tell you a story.

I met a young 16-year-old who was aging out of care. They gave her a book this size and a pittance of money and said, “Here you go. This is who you are.” That's when she realized she was a Métis kid. Her dad was from Buffalo Narrows, Saskatchewan, and the mother was from British Columbia. She had no cultural connection, nor did she know who she was. This happens every single day. I can walk out of here and down around the mall, where people are unfortunately suffering from mental health issues, and probably talk to kids who've aged out of the system.

It's not the provincial government's job or the federal government's job to figure out how to deal with those young people. The problem was created by churches and governments stealing our kids and doing all of that. It is our job to teach them their language and culture, and to meet their mooshums, kookums and families. That's one of the most important things in this legislation—for us to be able to say, “We are an indigenous governing body and we will take care of our own. You didn't do it very well. We need to do it, because we know how to do it.”

Transcript

Discussions (0)