We would have appreciated a dialogue in a ministers-only approach and didn't receive that. We've advocated for that. There was great leadership by my colleague from Saskatchewan, who chaired that process. We had many different voices around the table, which I thought was important and provided a good perspective.
I think when you look at child welfare—the provinces are responsible for that and we're working with our partners on the ground, and I can speak for Ontario in particular—we want to make sure that those voices in our indigenous communities are being represented. As the minister responsible for child welfare in Ontario, I got the sense that they weren't adequately consulted. My job is to make sure that their voice was heard around the table and I did express directly to the Minister of Indigenous Services that I am cautiously optimistic. I want this to succeed because indigenous children in Ontario—and I'm sure it's the same elsewhere across the country—are overrepresented in the children's aid societies, and that's heart breaking. It's the same with the LGBTQ+ children, as well as youth of colour.
How do we do a better job? Of course, we want to have a good, strong federal partner that allows us to succeed, but when we've reached out to our indigenous partners—I first started to do that in March and then we did this again in May—they didn't feel they had been heard.
I just wanted to make sure today that I came here wishing this committee and the government great success because its success means that children are protected and that we're advancing and moving forward. I think we always have to make sure that if there are higher standards in a province, we race to the top, not to the middle. I guess I would be here today because we have great success. We have incredible partners. They're doing amazing things. One of the first things I did after I was appointed 11 months ago—and I have five different ministries—was to meet with my colleagues because this is a serious issue in our province and I know it is elsewhere across the nation.
We have to continue the dialogue. I know that there are so many competing voices because there are so many jurisdictional issues, but I think that the best way for us is to hear each side and to make sure that as we have this conversation our focus is on that seven-year-old child who may be without a mom or a dad. I get that there's jurisdiction and I get that there's a Constitution. As someone who wrote a thesis on the Constitution, I understand that, but my focus is on that seven-year-old child.