The territory’s Child and Youth Advocate Office (CYAO) has found there is a gap between some existing policies and on-the-ground action involving youth in care.

The territorial government, meanwhile, is maintaining that most policies are being followed.

That’s according to Health and Social Services (HSS) Minister Pauline Frost. Speaking to reporters Thursday, she acknowledged that there had been a “small” group of government workers who did not follow rules.

“That’s not true, they are being followed,” Frost said when asked about the gap that advocate Annette King had referenced in her earlier remarks.

“We’ve seen a small part of the management historically, there were some challenges – and we’ve quickly put into action, and I think the transparency speaks for itself,” the minister added.

Allegations first came to light in 2018 thanks to a CBC North investigation into claims of wrongdoing in Yukon group homes. YG has embarked on a process that has seen it carry out multiple reviews – which Frost referenced when she spoke about transparency.

Those include an independent legal advisor involving a B.C. labour and employment lawyer reviewing six allegations, two of which were found to have merit as staff action went against law and department policy, along with government policy to not properly investigate an incident.

Another is the Public Interest Disclosure Commissioner (PIDC). Diane McLeod-McKay released her report last week and confirmed one wrongdoing for evicting a youth who was in the care of a director “without suitable alternate accommodation.”

This more recent one focuses more broadly on the experiences of 94 children and youth who lived in group care from April 2015 to March 2018, a three-year time period that looked at those in group homes and receiving homes.

King’s review comes with the acknowledgment that it is not impartial in that it focuses strictly on the youth, parents and staff’s stories within the system.

She referenced the legacy of colonialism felt in residential schools and the ’60s scoop as those that “harmfully impacted parenting capacity,” leading to possible outcomes like substance misuse, loss of identity and lack of meaningful relations.

In carrying out its work for the report, the office did interviews with youth and children, reviewed case file information, and reviewed policy and legislation. It also met with staff and managers at HSS, gathered data from the Education department and consulted other research.

King spoke to reporters shortly after seeing her report, titled Empty Spaces Caring Connections: The Experiences of Children and Youth in Yukon Group Care tabled in the legislature Thursday.

“We have Child and Family Services Act policies and Child Youth Advocate Act policies, where these are all the things that they’re entitled to,” King said.

“And we’re quite surprised of how many things that are actually in policy already that aren’t happening.”

One of the overwhelming themes found was culture identity; paired with relationships around loss and safety, involvement in their own case planning and leaving group care as they age out of care, King added children have that right to maintain their culture while in care.

“The legislation isn’t built to be as colonized as the past is,” she said.

“But the reality in the lived experiences of the kids is they’re still living in a very colonized system where their relationships with the people most important to them are severed for the sake of being safe.”

King’s report noted that out of the 94 children who lived in group care over those three years, more than 60 per cent already had files with the office and nearly 80 per cent identified as Indigenous, while 61 per cent were citizens or eligible to be citizens of a Yukon First Nation.

Herself from Old Crow and raised in that culture, Frost drew on her own experience of being away from her family in her young teens.

“We have a system that has created wrongdoing to our children for many many years, and we aim to correct that,” Frost said.

“And to correct something that is so fundamentally wrong, requires the input of a partnership of the First Nations.”

The minister continued there is a need to “create a venue or place of success for these young people” in group homes and better integrate culturally-based programming.

She pointed to the 22 Wann Rd. group home project. It will house youth who are transitioning out of care – but there is still yet no fixed date by which youth can begin moving into the site since it is undergoing renovations.

“What is primary behind all of this is that there’s elements of cultural practices and teachings that are not integrated into our system – this is systemic, it goes way back in time,” Frost said.

Pointing out that King’s report looked in part at experiences dating back to 2015, Frost noted she did not take on the role until heading into government in December 2016.

For King, it’s ultimately the impact on youth that may be most worth noting, along with the lack of knowledge or training for HSS staff working with youth.

“I’ve been in this position for four years now, and I found that right away they (employees) didn’t understand how to work with an advocate,” she said.

Streamlining the responsibility could go a long way in restoring some of that trust that youth have lost, King added.

“It’s an institution – if a child has 10 workers that aren’t even the decision makers, plus a case worker....

“These kids are wanting to make a connection to these staff and they keep changing so a lot of it is turnover,” she added – but there is also a lack of accountability there.

“There’s so many layers, and people and I think that the kids have told us that some of their closest connections are people that work with them right on the front line.”

For things like a case plan meeting to actually be held, if a youth does tell a staff member they need something and that staff takes it to their manager, “is a lot more complicated,” she added.

As for how she went about the process of doing her work, King said there was mixed reaction from the youth involved.

“We had to create a level of safety for that (dialogue to happen) which I’m not sure we fully reached, especially when it came to some of the staff or family members,” she said.

She noted that some youth feared to speak out because they did not “want to get the workers in trouble, because these are the people that care for them.”

On a somewhat related note, McLeod-McKay’s report last week also pointed to clear “difference of opinion” between YG and that role’s powers, as she was faced with “numerous legal challenges.”

That included YG lawyers insisting they be present during interviews with some HSS staff and YG outright denying access to some records requested by the commissioner.

The Yukon government will now have 90 days to respond to King’s report, which lays out 31 recommendations. That means YG has until late July to respond, after which it will be required to do progress reports twice a year.

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