My name is Jennifer Cox. I am a Mi'kmaw lawyer. I've been working in the province of Nova Scotia, although I worked for a number of years in the province of Saskatchewan as well. It will be 24 years this June that I first started practising law.
I've done a lot of work in the area of child welfare. In fact, Mr. Morris and I would be on the opposite side of the child welfare file. Part of what we want to share with you today is not only our comments on Bill C-92 but also our experiences in that relationship building. You wouldn't normally see lawyers who are on the opposite side of a case working together, but we have formed those relationships and have been able to make some of the changes we now see in Nova Scotia based on those relationships.
My submissions to the committee are with respect to the substantive provisions of Bill C-92. We did prepare a brief and submit it. Unfortunately, it hasn't been translated, so you don't have it before you.
As the chief indicated, the instructions I have are that we are supportive of Bill C-92, but there are some suggestions for change. Based on our experience in Nova Scotia with the legislative changes there, we're not unaware of the fact that these things happen very quickly, with very little opportunity to participate in the process. To some degree, I think, the committee needs to take that into consideration when you're looking at the motivations behind the government bringing this forward in such a short window. It's definitely difficult for us to participate with not a lot of time, but at the same time, it is not atypical of government to bring it forward and try to push it through.
In Nova Scotia, when we dealt with the changes in the legislation, it was very quick. We had a couple of months. We did the best we could. We came forward with some suggestions. Some of those suggestions led to some really positive changes, which my friend Mr. Morris will talk about in terms of the level of kids in care, with things going down and much more positive outcomes for families.
It's because of the relationships. Because we have one agency in the province, we have a good relationship with the Province of Nova Scotia. We have the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi'kmaq Chiefs and obviously a good champion with Chief Prosper. There are a lot of pieces to the success story we have in Nova Scotia. It isn't just based on legislation.
I'll get into the substantive provisions of the legislation that we see needing to be looked at. Too, I think it's important for the committee to note that we don't see this as co-drafted. Bill C-92 was not something on which we had anything other than one opportunity. There was an engagement session in October of 2018, but we don't see this as co-drafting. As I already indicated, I also do not see legislation as being the only agent of change. There will have to be the relationships, the funding, the infrastructure, the transition and all of these other things.
We're asking that funding provisions be added to the preamble. I think the word “need” needs to be substituted for “call”. Again, all of these substantive provisions will be provided to you so that you can look at the written text. We're asking that the provisions from the preamble be brought into clause 18 as well. Those are the jurisdiction provisions. We're not asking for changes in wording, other than inserting the word “need”; we're using the preamble language that the Government of Canada has already put forward.
We're asking that paragraph 20(2)(c) also include provisions with respect to funding principles—not formulas, just principles. If those funding principles are not included in the legislation, it makes it very difficult for us to negotiate those coordination agreements.
We're asking that in subclause 18(1), the United Nations declaration on indigenous peoples also be included as a recognition tool. So this subclause would mention not only section 35 of the Constitution Act but also the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
We're asking that Jordan’s principle be specifically mentioned in paragraph 9(3)(e).
We have some suggestions on the best interests of the child in subclause 10(3) that will allow some space for the inherent indigenous legal and community standards. That's a fairly important piece of the bill. I think it's really important to give indigenous communities some space to allow for their own community standards and traditions to be interpreted while their own legislation is being drafted.
A lot of these provisions won't be applied if they have their own legislation, but in the meantime, there's going to be a transition period and there should be some opportunity to allow for those inherent legal and community standards to come into play.
Paragraph 10(3)(g) we have concerns about. I think, quite frankly, it's in the wrong place. Normally in provincial legislation you see family violence as a reason to remove children, not in a “best interests” section. We are recommending that it be deleted because it may very well confuse people.
The definition of “care provider” unfortunately appears to include allowing foster parents to have standing in a legal proceeding. That's not normally what we see. In fact, provinces and territories in Canada, except Manitoba, do not permit foster parents to have standing in a legal proceeding. There are lots of problems and delays caused by that. Those are our concerns with the definition, and we have provided you with specific wording to amend that.