Implementation comes up short

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This article was published 23/11/2016 (2912 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Nearly three years after the province received the report of the inquiry into the death of Phoenix Sinclair, fewer than a third of its recommendations are considered fully implemented by the government, Manitoba’s children’s advocate says.

“The government has been surprisingly quiet on what actions they have taken to respond to the recommendations made in the final report of the inquiry,” Darlene MacDonald said Thursday.

“We feel the public has a right to understand what improvements are being made in the wake of Phoenix’s tragic death. We want to encourage a more transparent public conversation.”

MacDonald’s report, So much left to do: Status report on the 62 recommendations from the Phoenix Sinclair Inquiry, offers a comprehensive assessment on the progress made in implementing Justice Ted Hughes’ suggested improvements to Manitoba’s child-welfare system.

In conducting her review, the advocate examined internal government documents — including implementation plans, project plans and summaries — and met with government officials. 

MacDonald said in an interview that her office met resistance from the Family Services Department under the former NDP government, which caused her report to be delayed. It was to come out in June. A meeting with new Families Minister Scott Fielding in August helped move the process along, she said.

Phoenix Victoria Hope Sinclair was five years old when she was murdered by her mother and stepfather in 2005 while in the care of a child and family services agency. Hughes’ report was released by the province on Jan. 31, 2014.

As of Sept. 30, MacDonald said, 29 per cent of Hughes’ recommendations were considered by government to be completed, while 50 per cent were deemed to be in progress and 21 per cent were listed as “pending.”

The children’s advocate said some of government’s claims are questionable.

For instance, it considers that it has marked ‘completed’ beside a recommendation that would have required all social workers to be registered with the Manitoba College of Social Workers. Yet, all the former Selinger government did was indicate it would protect the title of ‘social work’ rather than requiring professional regulation of the actual practice, MacDonald said.

“If this report was assessing and analyzing the government’s progress, we would dispute their claim that this recommendation is appropriately addressed and complete,” she said. “We feel professional accountability is critical to improved service delivery, and the public has a right to know workers are well-trained and can be held to rigorous standards of practice.”

Similarly, MacDonald said, a recommendation by Hughes urging improved computerized information sharing to ensure children do not get lost in the system is categorized by the province as being “in progress,” although she sees no evidence of activity in the matter.

MacDonald said she was “very excited” that the Pallister government signalled in its throne speech that it would introduce legislation to increase the independence of her office, something also recommended by Hughes. More than a dozen of the Phoenix Sinclair inquiry’s recommendations involved changes in the role of the advocate.

The NDP introduced a bill last December that would also have transformed the children’s advocate’s role,  but it died on the order paper when the legislature was dissolved in advance of the April 19 provincial election.

NDP family services critic Nahanni Fontaine blasted the Pallister Conservatives Thursday for failing to allow her party’s bill to pass. “Last year he (Pallister) had the opportunity to do something that was right and he chose not to,” she said.

Families MInister Scott Fielding said his government plans to address all 62 recommendations in Hughes’ report, although he deflected a question on whether all social workers should qualify as members of the College of Social Workers.

Fielding said his department is moving towards creating a new computer data base that all CFS agencies could use. He said the government put out a call to the marketplace for proposals for a new information system that closed in September.

“We’re reviewing it,” he said of the response. “We’ve got to evaluate it.”

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca

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