MLA Dorothy Shephard says unfit parents allowed to fail too often

Former cabinet minister Dorothy Shephard says New Brunswick children are being damaged by a welfare system that too often sends them back to live with unfit parents who can't provide the necessities of life.

"Why are we allowing parents to fail multiple times?" askedthe Opposition MLA for Saint John-Lancaster.

Shephard saidit's one thing to givea parent a second chance and maybe a third.

"But it's not just once, twice or three times anymore. It's in the double digits," she said.

Shephard saidshe's making it her mission to help introduce "brave" policies to enable judges, lawyers and social workers to follow their instincts when they think a parent isn't capable of reform and can't provide a safe and stable home.

She saidshe comes by her convictions after hearing heartbreaking testimonies from children who aged out of foster care.

She also hears from parents, teachers and other constituents in her riding, which is home to priority neighbourhoods and one of the highest child poverty rates in Canada.

She said she recently heard about a young boy who couldn't count past 20,but knew how to mix alcoholic drinks and "the best places in town for hooking for money."

In my childhood, nothing good ever lasted.- Zoe Bourgeois

"I'm hoping we can work toward a system where they can say a child has been through enough and the child deserves to be in a home that is loving and safe."

Zoe Bourgeois saidshe lived that lifeand she's paying the price.

"It created a lot of trust issues," she said, reflecting on a childhood that saw her repeatedly bounced from her mother's home to foster care for a total of eightmoves between the ages of oneand 11.

"My birth mom would be fine for a few months," said Bourgeois, whose mother suffered from mental illness and alcoholism.

"Then bam, she'd lose her mindset,and the cycle begins again."

Bourgeois, now 24, works in a field where she observes children moving in and out of the foster care system.

She saidsome go home, but not for long.

And she believes the shuffling is hurting them as much as it hurt her.

"I always have this expectation that something bad is going to happen. Nothing good ever lasts because in my childhood, nothing good ever lasted," she said.

Social Development Minister Cathy Rogers said she agrees that too many moves are harmful.

"The last thing we want is for a child to be taken from their primary home, put into another home, and then returned and then back and forth," saidRogers.

"That's the last thing we want because that creates other challenges."

But, she adds, nobody wants to live in a society where children are ripped from their parents without just cause and due process.

Improvements coming 'very shortly'

Rogers saidtweaking the system is ongoing and some improvements are coming.

"Very shortly, we'll be able to proclaim the changes," she said.

Those changes include kinship legislation that will give the department more flexibility to place children with suitable, vetted relatives instead of placing the children with strangers.

Rogers said she believes that will be less disruptive to children who need to be removed from their home.

"If you could go with a family member who you know and trust and with whom you already have a relationship, you'll have a better sense of security and well-being," she said.

Norm Boss, the province's child and youth advocate, saidhe supports kinship legislation, as long as it gives the fostering relatives financial and other support.

CBC News reached out to the New Brunswick Foster Parents Association, but did not get a response.