New Brunswick overhauls child welfare legislation

The provincial government has introduced new child welfare legislation that would give the Department of Social Development expanded power to intervene in cases where they believe there could be risk of harm to a child.

It's a significant shift that comes three years after consultant George Savoury found children were being placed at risk by an under-resourced child protection system that hadn't been made a priority in a big department.

The Child and Youth Well-Being Act will replace parts of the 40-year-old Family Services Act and will be reviewed regularly to make sure it remains modern, the government announced on Wednesday. The first review will happen five years after it's proclaimed, then every seven years after that.

"The overall approach of the new legislation is child-centred, rather than parent-centred," Social Development Minister Bruce Fitch told reporters.

"It will provide greater consideration of the views and preferences of the child or youth in decision-making. Children and youth will be encouraged to express their views, according to their age and maturity."

Behind other provinces

New Brunswick was the only province without standalone child protection legislation, and it was one of the main recommendations stemming from Savoury's 2019 review. In a video played to reporters on Wednesday, Savoury applauded the province for closing the gap.

The new legislation is supposed to be clearer and easier to interpret for social workers, who sometimes felt they didn't have the legal power to intervene and remove a child from a home.

A report from child and youth advocate Kelly Lamrock, released just last week, suggested the child protection system is failing to protect children from potentially dangerous situations because of that lack of clarity.

• Report finds 'systemic failure' in child protection system puts children at risk

"We see many cases where children are left in situations of harm and where we have been unable to convince the department that they should do more to protect a child, or an entire sibling group," the report says.

"Most often the answer that we are given, is that the department is adamant that the courts would not endorse a decision to remove in cases which, to our eyes, are clear cases of endangerment."

The president of the New Brunswick Association of Social Workers said the changes will make it easier for social workers to intervene in cases where the potential for child abuse exists, even if it hasn't happened yet.

"That's certainly good for children in this province," Geraldine Poirier Baiani said in an interview.

While she believes social workers always had the best interests of children and youth in mind, she said the legislation "was restrictive at times" in some situations where they wanted to intervene.

"But now it's very clear. It's the best interests of the child and children and youth as primary. I think it makes things much clearer for them."

No reference to Indigenous culture, traditions in old law

Savoury's 2019 report found the outdated Family Services Act had no reference to Indigenous culture or traditions.

The new bill includes more modern definitions of how to determine the best interests of a child or youth, adding "the child or youth's cultural, linguistic, religious and spiritual upbringing and heritage, including Indigenous upbringing and heritage" as factors the department and the court should consider when making decisions.

While those things are important, Alexandria Knockwood has many questions about how it's going to work in practice.

"We would like to see how this is going to happen and how this is going to roll out, and if it will truly incorporate all the needs that First Nations people have," said Knockwood, who is director of child and family services at Metepenagiag Mi'kmaq Nation.

"I don't believe that with just that, those buzzwords are not going to be the total encompassing support that we need. There's so much."

The proposed legislation is also supposed to increase flexibility as cases move through the courts, with revised timelines for court proceedings, and to improve information sharing between departments, an issue that's been raised numerous times over the years.

The changes would also see additional services provided to youth aged 19 to 25, though the scope of those services "is still being determined and will be prescribed in regulation," Fitch said.

Lamrock, the child and youth advocate, said he hopes the proposed legislation receives thorough review by MLAs.

"I would recommend that the committee call witnesses, including not just our office but organizations who work on the front lines with children in care and youth at risk," Lamrock wrote in a statement.

The government hopes to have the new legislation and regulations proclaimed by early 2023.

Systemic problems

The changes come after several high-profile cases of child abuse and neglect over the years, which highlighted gaps in the child protection system.

A report from the child and youth advocate in 2019 found the Department of Social Development failed to protect five siblings in Saint John, who suffered from "damaging chronic neglect" while living in squalor, despite numerous complaints about the children's well-being.

Savoury's report also found resources had been siphoned away from child protection, where staff juggled high caseloads of complex, and often traumatic, cases.

• Child protection worker says she was traumatized by what she witnessed on the job

But three years later, staffing is still an issue within the department.

Last week, the president of the union representing child protection staff told CBC that staffing is at a "critical" level, with 17 vacancies in the Saint John area alone.

Fitch said retention and recruitment of social workers "has always been an issue."

"We continue to work with some of our schools in trying to promote social work as a career and, again, provide them with an opportunity to work for [the Department of] Social Development," the minister said.

He said some of the changes will make the job easier, including the process of going to court.

"When I say easier, for instance, I think of the judge taking some of the evidence," Fitch said.

"Instead of calling in all the social workers that maybe touched on the case that they would be able to accept reports as evidence into their findings, as opposed to calling each individual social worker in."