Manitoba

Manitoba Tories demand Phoenix Sinclair report be made public

Manitoba's opposition is calling on the government to make public a report investigating how to implement the remaining recommendations from the Phoenix Sinclair Inquiry.

Family Services critic says public should see report at the same time as Minister

Manitoba's Progressive Conservative Party is calling on the government to make public a report investigating how to implement the remaining recommendations from the Phoenix Sinclair Inquiry (Phoenix Sinclair Inquiry)

Manitoba's opposition is calling on the government to make public a report investigating how to implement the remaining recommendations from the Phoenix Sinclair Inquiry.

Family Services critic Ian Wishart said the province should have received the report Tuesday. 

"The minister will no doubt want some time to digest it, but we can do that at the same time,"  Wishart said. 

Following the Phoenix Sinclair Inquiry, Commissioner Ted Hughes made 62 recommendations, 31 of them have been acted upon by the province. 

The remaining 31 recommendations were sent to an independent implementation team led by Barbara Bruce.

The team was to give the province guidance on how to put them into action.

In January 2014 the province said it would receive the team's report September 30. 

"We can all agree that there have been some serious problems in Child and Family Services of late," Wishart said. "Many of these recommendations actually touch on some of these problems, so we'd certainly like to see action as quickly as possible." 

Government calls report 'interim'

The NDP government is refusing to make the report public, now saying it is an interim report. 

A spokesperson said after the inquiry, the goal was to better protect vulnerable children.

The government said that's why it hired an independent agency, AMR Consulting, to help it implement the 31 remaining recommendations. 

She said the consultants have submitted a report on their interim progress from January to the present and the minister is going over that now. 

She said the final AMR report will be presented to government by Jan. 31.