The Ministry of Social Services (MSS) and Yorkton Tribal Council Child and Family Services (YTCCFS) are making progress on recommendations by Bob Pringle, Saskatchewan's Advocate for Children and Youth, resulting from the horrifying death of a six-year-old a year ago.
"Overall, considering Yorkton's original position, I'm satisfied the ministry in Yorkton is taking our recommendations seriously," Pringle told Yorkton This Week following the release last week of the ministry's first quarterly report to the advocate.
In August 2013, Lee Bonneau was found beaten to death outside a recreation centre on the Kahkewistehaw First Nation. A 10-year-old boy, who, according to police, had a history of violence and getting in trouble at school and with the law, was responsible.
In his investigation, Pringle found gaps in the services provided to both boys and their families, that certain MSS policies and procedures were not followed, that concerns
about the older boy's behaviour were not properly followed up on and that there was poor communication between the ministry and the agency.
He concluded that the death could have been prevented if the children and their families had had better access to prevention and early intervention services.
In May, Pringle released his report, which contained a total of 18 recommendations including the provision for quarterly reports, something the advocate had never before insisted on, but felt was necessary because of the potential seriousness of the consequences of inaction.
In the executive summary, Pringle made it clear the report was not an indictment of the older youth.
"In conducting this investigation, we are not passing judgment on Derek's [a pseudonym] guilt or innocence," he wrote. "He will never be charged with an offence in relation to this incident. The purpose of this report is to make recommendations to improve the capacity of child-serving systems to ensure the rights of children are upheld."
Those recommendations included measures to reduce poverty, improve casework effectiveness, strengthen policies and practices, improve oversight of contracted agencies and coordinate more timely involvement of other service providers such as the health regions.
The Province's first quarterly report included recommendation-by-recommendation responses of actions taken by both MSS and YTCCFS.
Pringle was cautiously optimistic.
"We're satisfied there's either a plan or something in motion to address [the recommendations] except on the poverty front," he said.
Pringle believes poverty reduction is at the very core of the issue and made it the first recommendation, "That the Government of Saskatchewan develop and implement well-resourced early childhood development and poverty reduction strategies to advance the goals of its Child and Family Agenda."
The Government responded to this recommendation with a reiteration of its spending record including $97 million in incremental funding for income support programs since November 2007, an increase of $8.7 million to the Child and Family Agenda in 2014/2015, an additional 15 pre-K programs and 500 new child care spaces. It also referenced its pilot program of family resource centres, one of which opened at SIGN in Yorkton on February 19.
Pringle believes it is simply not enough.
"There are a lot of good initiatives, but what we're calling for is a comprehensive strategy," he said.
In fairness to the Province, he said the Government does recognize there is a long way to go and that the "comprehensive strategy" will require the participation of the federal government.
