Second Reading

Bill 25, the Child and Youth Advocate Act

November 23, 2011

Mr. Anderson: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to stand up and support the government’s Bill 25, the Child and Youth Advocate Act, 2011. I want to compliment – I’m sorry he’s not here – the hon. Member for Calgary-Glenmore on his speech on this afternoon. It was eloquent and very touching.

I just wanted to quickly give my support for it. I do have one comment on it that I am worried about, though. I guess in committee, maybe, we can get some clarification on this issue. One of the positive things that this bill does is that it makes the youth advocate specifically accountable to the Legislature as opposed to the cabinet, as opposed to the government, which is a very good step. But I am worried that if that’s what we’re going to do, then I think that we should make sure it is the Legislature that chooses the children’s advocate under this legislation.

I don’t think we should just transition the current one, who was not picked by the Legislature but picked by the government, by the minister. It’s nothing against the individual. The individual might be fantastic. That’s the point. We don’t know. If we’re going to make this person an officer of the Legislature, then I think that it’s critical that they be truly accountable to the Legislature and chosen by the Legislature. We’ll bring some amendments forward when we get into committee on this to see if the government is willing to entertain that possibility.

I would like to note that our party, the Wildrose, has been calling for an independent advocate reporting to the Legislature for some time. We released our policy on this a while back, and it’s something that we’ve been pushing. Clearly, the hon. Member for Edmonton-Strathcona has been pushing it longer, and I certainly congratulate her.

Ms Blakeman: We had a private member’s bill.

Mr. Anderson: I’m informed that the Alberta Liberal caucus has also been pushing this as well. That’s great. This is a good-news story for them and a good-news story for everybody in the Legislature because it’s long overdue. That’s a very positive piece of this legislation.

We’re also calling for a better sharing of information between public bodies and clarification around issues of confidentiality on issues involving children. We hope that the government will take a look at that.

There are many issues that still need to be dealt with, but we certainly believe that this is a positive step. I hope that in com-mittee that we can really hit this one out of the park as a House by making sure that the person who becomes the Child and Youth Advocate will be someone that is chosen by this Legislature. That is really my only caveat to supporting this bill, but I will be supporting it in second reading and would hope that all members will do the same.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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