Preventing the use of social circumstances including poverty as a reason for taking a child from its parents.

Tuesday November 6th, I spoke in the Manitoba Legislature on Bill 223, the Child and Family Services Amendment Act. This bill will ensure that no child will be taken into care solely as a result of the economic or social situation of the child's parent or guardian. My comments are below:

Hon. Jon Gerrard (River Heights): Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for Point Douglas (Mrs. Smith) for bringing this forward. It is an important bill. When I was first elected in 1999, I was told that about a third of the children taken from families didn't need to be in care because it was just an issue of social circumstances and poverty that could've been helped.

Over the last 19 years it was very frustrating that this was never adequately addressed and so that we ended up with about 11,000 kids in care, and probably about 85 per cent of them on the basis of neglect, and many of those due to social and economic circumstances.

There needs to be, clearly, from the government's side, a plan to support families who are in difficult economic and social circumstances, so that when you have a child not coming into care, there needs to be an alternative that needs to be vigorous and strong.

I thank the member for Point Douglas and hope that we can pass this through.

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Manitoba School Boards have contributed much innovation and advancement of education in Manitoba

On Thursday March 25, in Question Period, I asked the Premier why he is getitng rid of school boards when they have contributed to much to the improvement of education in Manitoba. My question and the Premier's response are below (from Hansard). Manitoba Education System Elimination of Boards and Divisions Hon. Jon Gerrard (River Heights): Madam Speaker, Manitoba school boards have been an incredible source of new ideas and innovation. The White Horse Plains school board brought in audio and video links to Hutterite schools. The Seine River School Division piloted Roots of Empathy, to help kids learn empathy, and also Kids at Play: half-day kindergarten, half-day early-childhood education. The Seven Oaks School Division brought in Met schools. And there are many, many more examples. Why is the Premier getting rid of school boards when they've done so well at listening to parents, at ...

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Too many Manitoba children with learning disabilities like dyslexia are not being identified and helped early on starting in Kindergarten and grades 1 and 2. The Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that it is the provinces responsibility to ensure that every child learns to read, and even when, in the case of a child with dyslexia intensive intervention is needed. In 12 years Manitoba has failed to produce a provincial plan to address this issue. We are holding a Forum (see below) on this subject. Please come out to the Forum. There is no cost. Everyone is welcome. To learn more about the need to do better helping children, youth and adults with a learning disability click on this link

The Gerrard Report

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