Bill 233 Jordan's Principle - The NDP is all talk and no action

Today, Manitoba Liberals introduced Bill 233, the Jordan's Principle Implementation Act at second reading. Almost unbelievably the NDP did not support implementing Jordan's Principle. Many dignitaries were in attendance including Southern Grand Chief Shannacappo, MKO Grand Chief Sydney Garrioch, Keewatin Tribal Council Grand Chief Arnold Ouskan, Former AMC Grand Chief Dennis White Bird - now with MB Treaty Commission, Cindy Blackstock Executive DirectorFirsts Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada, Coucillor Mike Muswagon of Norway House Cree Nation and many others.

The full text from Hansard of my speech in the Manitoba Legislature is below:

Bill 233–The Jordan's Principle
Implementation Act
Hon. Jon Gerrard (River Heights): I move, seconded by the MLA for Inkster that Bill 233, The Jordan's Principle Implementation Act; Loi sur la mise en oeuvre du principe de Jordan, be now read a second time and be referred to a committee of this House.
Motion presented.
Mr. Gerrard: Mr. Speaker, the story of Jordan Anderson, who was from Norway House, has been a remarkable story. Jordan was born in 1999. At the age of about three he was ready to go home from the Children's Hospital. He had multiple medical issues, but even though he was ready to go home, there was bickering between the federal and the provincial government over who was to pay for what, including the price of a showerhead, and, as a result, Jordan Anderson never got to go home. He died, sadly, in February of 2005.
Mr. Speaker, Jordan's story has been immortalized in the words of Trudy Lavallee, who wrote his story up in a pediatric journal, and she called for the implementation of Jordan's Principle, the principle that children should have the right to timely access to the health and social services they need regardless of the jurisdictional disputes, that children should be looked after first and given the services they need first and then governments can argue afterwards.
Mr. Speaker, that is a principle that we are trying to implement today. It's a very important principle. It is a principle which has been supported last December by a resolution passed unanimously in the House of Commons. It is a principle which is being increasingly supported by people across Canada because it is being realized that there are huge numbers of children in First Nations communities who are not getting the services that they should be getting.
Jordan's Principle is fundamentally about equality. It is about equality of services: that it shouldn't matter whether you're on a First Nations community, a reserve or whether you're in a community nearby, that the services should be similar. We shouldn't have, in today's world, the kind of discriminatory situation which exists for so many children right now.
I would like to pay tribute to Trudy Lavallee, who is in the gallery, and I would like to pay tribute to former Grand Chief Dennis White Bird, and the reason is that Trudy Lavallee and Dennis White Bird went down to the Children's Hospital from time to time while Jordan was waiting to go back to his community of Norway House. They were able to visit with Jordan because they felt that he needed somebody there to visit with him.
Dennis White Bird, I believe, was the Grand Chief at that time and what a gesture that he made then. There is no doubt that Jordan should have been able to go home. There is no doubt that there are children now, perhaps as many as 2,500 in Manitoba, who are not getting the services they need because of this argument over jurisdictional disputes and because children in too many First Nations communities are not getting the quality of services that they should be getting.
I'd like to recognize also Cindy Blackstock, who is in the gallery today. She's the executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada. She has travelled all the way from Ottawa because she believes this is so important that we act today to pass this on from second reading to committee stage so this bill can be moved forward and we can implement Jordan's Principle.
Cindy Blackstock had a major role in helping to organize the effort which led to the successful passage of the resolution last December in the House of Commons unanimously supporting Jordan's Principle.
This bill would implement Jordan's Principle and provide not only the legal rights for all children in Manitoba to get the services they need, but also the process for making sure it is getting implemented. We need, of course, the service delivery model that will allow us to be sure that the services are being delivered. Doreen Demast and Don Schackel presented last week at the conference on Jordan's Principle from Wednesday to Friday, and Don spoke and Doreen spoke eloquently at that conference about a model that they have already presented to federal and provincial governments which could be implemented.
For many of these children, it is not a huge expense. For some of them, it is. Some of them have very complex medical conditions, but others, it is much more simpler at making sure that children with disabilities are provided the kinds of services that they need.
We need to move to a supporting model where the services are provided in the home and the community, as they should be, wherever a child is in our wonderful province of Manitoba. The service delivery model that has been developed would probably cost about $4,200 per child, about $10 million for federal and provincial governments. If it could be divided, $5 million each, or $2,100 per child from the Province, and considering that when these services are not provided in this fashion, we end up often with huge hospital and other expenses, provincial expenses, that it is an investment which is worth making for these children federally and provincially.
The will needs to be there. There has been enough talking. I first raised the issue and my concerns about Jordan's Principle in December 2005 in this Legislature. At that time, the government said, oh, we support the rights of the child being first. But two-and-a-half years later, there are still discussions. There are still talks. It's time to end the lip-service. It's time to implement Jordan's Principle and make sure that the rights of children in Manitoba are there, they're enforceable legally, and that we move quickly for the service delivery model to actually make sure that it is there and that the services are provided and delivered when they are needed and where they are needed.
Today will determine, given the wonderful support of many people who have come out, often travelling long distances, not only from Ottawa but from northern Manitoba to emphasize the importance of supporting and passing Jordan's Principle.
We will see today whether the NDP government is ready to stand up and move this forward. It's been two and a half years of talk. It's time to end the talk. It's time to move this. Move it to committee and let's allow people to present and move this forward.
Last week at the Premiers' Conference, the Premier (Mr. Doer) is on record as supporting Jordan's Principle. Publicly, the Premier has said he supports Jordan's Principle. That's enough. It's time to pass Bill 233 and make sure Jordan's Principle is implemented. Thank you.