A report that saw the Yukon government hire a B.C. lawyer last year to do an independent review of allegations of mistreatment in group homes will not be made public, the government said Monday.

That was confirmed by Health and Social Services (HSS) Minister Pauline Frost. To protect the privacy of those youth mentioned in the report from late last year, she said, it will not be shared publicly.

“That report was done, it finished last year and we provided a summary,” Frost told reporters Monday afternoon, shortly after question period.

“Clearly, we cannot release the full report because of confidentiality for protecting the youth.”

She agreed that meant the public could never expect to see the report in its entirety.

YG did, however, provide a summary by the investigator, Pamela Costanzo, last September at a news conference.

During that event, it also publicly apologized for “an institution in crisis” that led to the allegations.

Costanzo was hired last May after allegations of mistreatment were first detailed in reports by CBC North, stemming from some youth and workers in group homes.

Costanzo’s report was not made public in full. It detailed six total allegations, five of which were related to specific instances about mistreatment.

The last one looked at managers in HSS covering up or ignoring complaints about the mistreatment of youth.

Her report found merit in two of the six allegations; one saw the mistreatment of youth going against law and department policy, while another showed a director did not properly investigate an incident and broke government policy.

That resulted in two youth, who were involved in incidents in late 2016, not receiving care they should have been, Frost has since admitted.

The minister was also asked Monday if the Child and Youth Advocate Office’s report, tabled last week shortly after the Public Interest Disclosure Commissioner (PIDC) tabled her own report earlier this month, received all the information she needed to do her work.

“I would not say that, what I would say is that we complied with (advocate) Annette King,” Frost said.

“I’ve instructed staff to participate with (the advocate) much like they did with the PIDWA commissioner in providing whatever she requested,” Frost said, adding that was done “in good faith.”

However, the commissioner, Diane McLeod-McKay, reported that she had her own set of challenges as she went about her work to produce the report.

Pointing to a clear “difference of opinion” between her role’s powers and YG, she wrote she was faced with “numerous legal challenges.”

Those included government lawyers insisting they be present during some interviews with HSS staff and YG outright denying access to some records McLeod-McKay requested.

Meanwhile, on a somewhat related note, last September’s news conference was held at 22 Wann Rd. That’s the site YG purchased for $1.1 million last May and is expecting to pay a similar price on for renovations.

That work is to convert the one-time bed and breakfast into a group home for youth transitioning out of care, the substantial completion date for which was set for Tuesday.

Once that Porter Creek property comes online, two other downtown Whitehorse group homes will be closed.

HSS, however, has yet to finalize a date by which youth can begin moving in to the new site.

The Wann Road property has also been referenced by the government and Frost in recent days as one step being taken to improve the experience of youth in care.

“I think we took every possible angle – so as I stated before, there’s no rock that we left unturned,” Frost said of the numerous recommendations (inclusive of the commissioner, advocate and Costanzo’s report) that YG now has before it after the allegations came to light in 2018.

The government will now have 90 days to respond to the advocate’s report, which comes complete with 31 recommendations.

“If there’s policy changes to be had in the future, we will certainly reflect that in our future plans,” Frost added.

The 90-day timeline will take YG into late July, after which it will be required to do progress reports twice a year.

As for the Costanzo report itself, HSS confirmed yesterday afternoon it cost just over $46,000.

The department reiterated that because it looked at specific allegations of wrongdoing, it “contains information that is not appropriate to share.

“This includes client information covered by privacy legislation and information covered by solicitor-client privilege,” an HSS spokesperson added.