The committee met at 7:05 p.m.

[J. Sims in the chair.]

J. Sims (Chair): Good evening, everyone. My name is Jinny Sims. I'm the MLA for Surrey-Panorama and the Chair of the Select Standing Committee on Children and Youth.

I really want to say how much I appreciate everybody's accommodation in agreeing to a Zoom meeting for all of us. As you might have heard, today is Eid, and I'm in my riding for Eid. This was very important for me.

I would like to acknowledge that I'm joining this evening's meeting from the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people, and I encourage each and every one of you to consider the Indigenous connections to the land where you are located.

We have a couple of agenda items this evening. Our first agenda item is the Detained report. We'll begin with updates from government bodies on the status of implementing recommendations from the representative's 2021 report called Detained: Rights of Children and Youth Under the Mental Health Act. Members will remember that we had a discussion last fall, quite a lengthy one, about following up on previous reports of the representative, and we agreed to follow up on this one.

Now I'd like to welcome the guests who will be speaking on this. From the Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions, we have Christine Massey, the deputy minister; Francesca Wheeler, assistant deputy minister; and Kristina Ponce, senior director.

From the Ministry of Children and Family Development, we have David Galbraith, deputy minister; Kelly Durand, assistant deputy minister; and Cassie McCaffrey, associate executive director.

From the Ministry of Health, Darryl Sturtevant, assistant deputy minister, and Roxanne Blemings; and from the Ministry of Attorney General, Paul Craven, assistant deputy minister.

Welcome, and we're looking forward to hearing from you. What I'm going to do now is turn it over to the presenters, who are taking the lead.

Consideration of Representative
for Children and Youth Reports

Detained: Rights of Children and
Youth under the Mental Health Act

C. Massey: Good evening, everyone. My name is Christine Massey, and I'll take the lead in the presentation. Paul Craven from Attorney General will also present, and all the folks on the screen here are available to answer questions.

Thank you, everyone, for having us here.

I will also take the opportunity to acknowledge that I'm gathering here this evening with you on the territory of the lək̓ʷəŋən-speaking people, today known as the Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations. I do want to thank all First Nations Indigenous communities, including Métis peoples, who provide us with their invaluable insights into Indigenous ways of knowing and understanding the world. We think every day about how their work informs the work we do, particularly for children and youth.

The table of contents that we've presented shows a little bit about what we hope to cover with you today, as we report on how we've been doing on the Detained report. Before we get deep into the presentation, I do want to acknowledge the recent update that that you received from the representative, just in the last couple of weeks, providing her most recent assessment of how we've done.

[7:10 p.m.]

Her assessment was based on evidence we all gave to the representative's office up to and including actions to September of 2023, almost a year ago. What we're going to present today will provide the most up-to-date information on our progress, including what has happened since we last reported.