Seventeen days have passed since Child Advocate’s Office appeared at a legislative committee and the NDP have done little: Gerrard

 Winnipeg – Jon Gerrard, Leader of the Manitoba Liberal Party said today that Manitoba Liberals are outraged by the lack of action by the NDP on the crisis within the province’s child welfare system.

 “The NDP’s lack of urgency on this situation is unacceptable.  Seventeen days have passed since the acting director of the Child Advocate’s Office was called before a legislative committee and there has been little work done by Minister Mackintosh and his office,” said Gerrard.   “They should have been able to come up with a basic priority list for the most urgent issues and should have also moved forward on plans to integrate recommendations from reviews of the system,” said Gerrard.  

 Gerrard said that his office has made Manitoba’s child welfare system a priority for a number of years and has ramped up work on the issue in recent weeks.  “Following the initial presentation to the Legislative Assembly Management Committee by the Child Advocate on April 27, 2010, I instructed my staff to move aggressively on identifying best practices in BC and Alberta.  Both provinces have had much success in keeping kids out of care by providing preventative services to families and we need to move fast towards similar models.”

 “This NDP government cannot be trusted to correct this child welfare crisis anytime soon and I have seen little contribution from the Conservatives as well,” said Gerrard.   “It’s disgraceful that the majority of action on this crisis is happening in an opposition party office with two MLAs.  The children of this province deserve to have their needs attended to by all parties working together with a focus on expediting solutions.” 

 The Manitoba Liberal Party believes that keeping families strong and healthy is a cornerstone in the Liberal commitment to social justice and fiscal responsibility.

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For more information please contact: Michelle Nyhof, Communications Officer for Manitoba Liberal Caucus at Room 169 – 450 Broadway, Legislative Building, Winnipeg, MB  R3C 0V8 ; Tel: (204) 771-2513; Fax: (204) 948-3220 ; michelle.nyhof@leg.gov.mb.ca