Phoenix Sinclair inquiry proposals green-lit; Bill 25 to be replaced

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This article was published 03/09/2015 (3155 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In a stunning turnaround, the Selinger government says it is now ready to proceed with key reforms of the children’s advocate’s role — as recommended by the Phoenix Sinclair inquiry report — far sooner than it originally proposed.

When the legislative sitting resumes this fall, the government will take the unusual step of withdrawing a bill it introduced just 2 1/2 months ago and replacing it with a new and more comprehensive measure.

Among the new provisions of the expanded advocate bill will be the responsibility to review critical injuries — not just deaths — involving children in care, Family Services Minister Kerri Irvin-Ross said in an interview. The advocate will also be able to delve into issues concerning children beyond the realm of the child-welfare system.

The timeline for implementing the reforms has also been substantially reduced — by as much as two years.

Ross said Thursday the new bill will better reflect the recommendations of inquiry report author Justice Ted Hughes.

She described the earlier effort — Bill 25, which was tabled June 10 — as a first step in implementing Hughes’ vision for the advocate’s role.

The new bill will come much closer to meeting the spirit, if not the letter, of what Hughes proposed, she said, noting all his recommendations are being accepted.

“I know that commissioner Hughes will be pleased with it,” Irvin-Ross said, adding she keeps in regular contact with the retired jurist. “Commissioner Hughes will see that his recommendations have been honoured and implemented.”

Bill 25 was introduced in the spring session of the legislature but never proceeded to second reading. It was a disappointment to many because it only partially covered Hughes’ recommendations for expanding the role of the advocate’s office.

Hughes envisioned that the children’s advocate be afforded the same independence as the ombudsman and auditor general and he or she have a mandate to advocate not only for kids in the child-welfare system, but for all children and youth.

He wanted the advocate to be free to review not only child deaths, but also critical injuries to any child in care. Hughes also wanted to make the office’s annual and special reports available to the public.

Some of his recommendations were contained in the old bill and some were not.

The government said it needed to consult with representatives of all affected government departments, from Justice and Health to Education and Children and Youth Opportunities, before it could proceed further. And the process would take at least 15 months until after Bill 25 came into force.

But Thursday, Irvin-Ross said those discussions had gone faster than originally thought and the government was moving faster than planned.

“We accelerated consultations. We had the conversations with the other departments, with the children’s advocate, with the ombudsman,” she said. “Things are falling into place.”

But the Progressive Conservatives’ family services critic, Ian Wishart, didn’t buy the notion quicker internal deliberations — and not public pressure — were driving the government to speed reform.

“Here’s a minister who has only ever acted when she’s driven to it,” Wishart said. “She has a long history of that.”

After wasting a year by farming out many of Hughes’ recommendations to an outside consultant for study, he said, the government introduced a limited bill with still another lengthy consulting period.

“It didn’t make any sense, and nobody was buying it,” Wishart said. “I don’t think half the people in her own party were buying that they needed the delay.”

Wishart said new legislation — if Manitoba copies the B.C. model, as Hughes recommended — would make it clear to any government department dealing with children it has a duty to refer a child in crisis to the advocate’s office.

He said such a law could have led to much quicker intervention in the case of a 12-year-old Winnipeg girl who was forced to have two abortions in 2012 after being impregnated by her abusive stepfather. The man was sentenced last week to 16 years in prison.

Children’s advocate Darlene MacDonald said she was informed by Irvin-Ross about the government’s change in plans a few weeks ago.

She said she’s pleased the process is being sped up and the new bill will be more comprehensive, but she’s disappointed the government has already taken so long to act.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca