AIRDRIE, AB – (Friday), Wildrose Shadow Human Services Minister Angela Pitt called on the NDP to keep their campaign commitment to reinstate funding to expand the investigative powers of the Child and Youth Advocate Office.
The department of Human Services recently reported the death of four children under provincial care.
“My thoughts and prayers are with all those who have been impacted by the loss of these four children receiving government services,” Pitt said. “These tragic circumstances reiterate the need to fully restore funding to the Office of the Child and Youth Advocate, after the PCs withheld much needed funding to expand the office’s investigation powers as mandated by the legislature.”
Additional funding for child death investigators would provide the necessary tools to discover the systemic causes of these deaths, and work to prevent them in the future.
Pitt called on the NDP to work collaboratively to restore the urgently needed funding for the Child and Youth Advocate Office.
“I urge the government to follow through on their campaign promise of restoring funding to the Office of Child and Youth Advocate,” Pitt said. “This step is necessary to ensure that some of Alberta’s most vulnerable people have a system that is effective, open, and transparent, and can hopefully prevent further tragedies from occurring.”