To the member: A lot of the ongoing work of the child welfare redesign was focused on improving the quality of out-of-home care. That’s an important area of focus. Children and youth in care deserve the best possible quality of care. It makes their lives better, and it helps set them up for success. So what changes would the passage of this bill make to out-of-home care requirements?

Thank you to the member for London–Fanshawe for sharing such a deep, personal story of her family and the struggles that they faced with mental health. We know now that mental health is that much more prevalent. We definitely see that in our children and youth—many of those children who are ending up in care due to their mental health, which really shouldn’t be the purpose of child protection. Could the member maybe give some insight or thought to what the government could do better to ensure that children with mental health don’t end up in the children’s welfare sector?

I’d like to know if the member would support the NDP request to ensure that all group homes be not-for-profit in the province, and ensure that kids are not just cash cows.