Western Standard - February 01, 2024


Premier Danielle Smith Preserving choices for children and youth


Episode Stats

Length

1 minute

Words per Minute

209.21306

Word Count

218

Sentence Count

12


Summary

In this episode, Alberta's Minister of Children and Youth Development, Shelly Saviello, talks about the importance of child-parent relationships and the need for child-child relationships to be supported by the public. She also talks about a pilot project that will ensure that families are able to have counseling with their kids, and a child protection service is available if a child feels rejected or at risk of harm.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 I am confident that Albertans do not want children to make irreversible decisions that
00:00:05.700 impact their reproductive health.
00:00:07.320 I am confident that they do not think that those are child decisions to make, that those
00:00:11.560 are adult decisions to make.
00:00:13.340 I am also confident that parents love their kids and they want to know what's going on
00:00:17.480 with their kids.
00:00:18.140 It doesn't matter what perspective they come from.
00:00:20.180 They want to make sure that they're walking the journey with their child every step of
00:00:24.800 the way.
00:00:25.060 And anyone who's trying to put roadblocks in that child-parent relationship, I don't
00:00:31.280 think they have public support.
00:00:33.020 I mean, that said, we do know that there are going to be difficult conversations to be
00:00:36.760 had.
00:00:37.220 That's why we are going to be supporting a pilot project to ensure that families are
00:00:41.320 able to have counseling right alongside with the kids.
00:00:43.940 And if there is ever an instance where a child feels rejected or at risk of harm, we have
00:00:49.460 a child protection service.
00:00:50.620 And we are going to make sure that those kids also have a safe environment to be in.
00:00:54.600 So I would say that this is the right balance.
00:00:57.560 This is what I believe Albertans expect of us to do to make sure that we're protecting
00:01:01.860 kids' choices.