Alberta premier defends minister against resignation calls
Last Updated: Wednesday, October 22, 2008 | 12:27 PM ET
CBC News
Premier Ed Stelmach defended his minister of Children and Youth Services Tuesday after calls from the opposition for Janis Tarchuk's resignation.
The Alberta New Democrats said Tarchuk has known about problems with the child welfare system and done nothing about it in her two years as minister. Party leader Brian Mason called either for Tarchuk to resign, or for Stelmach to fire her.
In Tuesday afternoon's question period, the premier said he is standing by his minister.
"Mr. Speaker, there are very few people that I've met in Alberta that have the same compassion … for over 8,000 children in the care of this government," he said.
The calls for the minister's resignation come after the Alberta NDP released quarterly reports from the province's Child and Youth Advocate.
The reports, which were obtained by the NDP through a freedom of information request, paint a disturbing picture of the province's child welfare system.
According to the reports, children were kept in unsafe or inappropriate foster homes because there was nowhere else to place them, and alleged sexual assault victims were left in homes with their alleged attackers.
There were also examples of the use of face-down restraints, a practice that has been banned.
Incomplete picture, minister says
In a news conference Tuesday, Tarchuk said those reports contain unsubstantiated complaints and paint an incomplete picture, because there are no references to the followups the department may have conducted.
However, she said she is familiar with the details in the reports.
"I do see the quarterlies on a quarterly basis. I'm well aware of the situations in there," she said.
There may also be more fallout from the tabling of the Child Advocate's last three annual reports in the legislature on Oct. 14.
The minister could face a legislative investigation for failing to table the reports each year, and advocate John Mould may be forced to testify in front of a committee of the legislature.
Tarchuk said the last three annual reports were all tabled at the same time because Mould didn't get them completed until September.
Tarchuk said she spoke to Mould about the backlog as soon as she became aware of it, and made him commit to completing future reports on time.
