“We have a responsibility to ensure that children and youth in care have the opportunity to voice concerns, and that the public is able to see how we respond to and address matters brought to our attention,” said Tarchuk. “Providing timely and meaningful information about how we deal with concerns in the child intervention system, by increasing transparency and accountability, follows through on my commitment in that area.”

In keeping with a recommendation made this past summer by the review panel that examined the child and youth advocacy system in the province, the annual report can be reviewed by the all-party Policy Field Committee on Health.

The advocate has also posted on his website quarterly reports summarizing the activities of his office and listing concerns brought forward by or on behalf of individual children and youth served by Child and Family Services Authorities and Delegated First Nation Agencies. The Minister committed to sharing future quarterly reports when the child and youth advocacy review committee report and recommendations were released in July 2009.

Response documents to the annual and quarterly reports, showing work the ministry has done to make progress on or address matters in the reports, have also been publicly released.

The advocate annual and quarterly reports can be viewed by visiting www.advocate.gov.ab.ca. The ministry response documents can be found at www.child.alberta.ca/home/1253.cfm.