May 31, 2013 - Phoenix Sinclair Inquiry

B.A. CYR - DR.EX. (WALSH) MAY 31, 2013
D.L. ROUSSIN - DR.EX. (WALSH)
S.E. TAYLOR - DR.EX. (WALSH)
D.M. KNOL - DR.EX. (WALSH)
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Bernice?
MS. TAYLOR: A 16-year-old kid that lives in B.C.
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makes more than I pay my outreach workers.
And he's just
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working for the summer. That's a big statement.
MS. WALSH: Bernice? Thank you. Bernice?
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MS. CYR:
My opinion on differential response
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funding has been the moment it was announced many years ago
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is that it needs to be vetted through the community.
Now,
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I'm talking provincially.
The north end has a luxury that
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it has an urban centre where you could target a number of
resources, but there's a number of provincial communities
that don't have any family services at all. And what winds
up happening is that they become -- we talk about increases
in child welfare, well, if you don't have medical services
you don't have anti-poverty services or poverty alleviation
services or housing, you're going to have a significant
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over-representation in child welfare.
That's just -- the
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evidence is out there. So I would like to see D.R. funding
go and be vetted through community organizations, both
urban and rurally; that I would like to see funding be
harmonized with other funding agreements like Family
Services and Labour, whether that be community programs,
child welfare, family violence prevention, that they become
managed on five-year business plans that are created by the
agency, that is about meeting the needs of their families
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