A national office for children and youth

Children and youth are the future of our country, our links and legacy to tomorrow. Their dreams and aspirations will shape what Canada will become in the 21st century and what Canada’s place will be in the world. They are the living testament of our values. What their values and beliefs will be as adults is profoundly affected by their health and well being today. This, in turn, is affected by factors such as family income and family life, educational quality and opportunities, social support networks and the physical environment – for example, air and water quality and the effort society offers to ameliorate negative factors and support positive ones (1).

Clearly, parents are front and centre in the growth and development of their children and youth. From preconception, to the prenatal environment, to the environment in the home, the health and well being of children and youth are shaped by parents and family. While the importance of parental influence cannot be understated, many factors that affect child and youth health outcomes are influenced directly and indirectly by federal and provincial/territorial government legislation and regulations, and by decisions on program support at the federal, provincial/territorial and regional level. For example, with high taxes on cigarettes, there has been a decrease in youth smoking (2). Bicycle helmet legislation has led to a decrease in serious head injuries (3). Early childhood development programs that enhance verbal skills are important for language and literacy. These are important for success in school (4), for social well being (ie, increased risk of teenage antisocial behaviour if a child has poor verbal skills at two years of age [4]), and for our economy and productivity. A 1% increase in average literacy rates in Canada would yield a 1.5%, or $18 billion, increase in our GDP and a 2.5% increase in productivity (5).

Children and youth are among the most vulnerable in our society, and they have very little direct control or say about their environment (family, educational, community, physical), no access to powerful lobbies that influence government priorities and legislation, little direct access to the legal system and courts to protect their rights, and no right to vote. Despite the fact that children and youth are the future of our country, their needs and priorities are all too often overlooked in the noisy debates about ‘adult’ issues and interests.

Being laisser-faire or simplistic about child and youth needs – that is, not dealing with negative social, educational, developmental and health environments in a meaningful way – has long-term consequences for our young people and our society. Negative media stories about our children and youth – about bullying, swarming, drug and alcohol use, and vandalism – are common, and headlines typically read “Children out of control” or “Youth in trouble”. These headlines are often followed by a wringing of hands or a knee-jerk call for ‘get tough’ policies, with scant attention paid to the root causes of the problems or to evidence-based, successful prevention and intervention programs. The United States Surgeon General’s 2001 report on youth violence (6) notes that school “interventions that target change in social context appear to be more effective than those that attempt to change individual attitudes, skills and risk behaviours”. Despite evidence, effective intervention programs all too often receive no or only inconsistent funding, with more funding going to detention centres and jail facilities – in other words, short-term ‘fixes’, not long-term solutions.

Canada’s Senate made a bold statement in 2004 in A Canada Fit for Children (7), challenging all to “work together on all levels – at the national level, at the individual and the community level – to construct a world in which our children can live, learn, develop as far as their potential and dreams will take them”. Unfortunately, there is no evidence of concrete steps to achieve this goal. Protection and championing of child and youth rights has not yet garnered the attention that it deserves. We do not have a Child and Youth Rights and Health Charter. We have no national office in Canada with the specific remit of ensuring that the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (8) is adhered to. The idea of an independent national office focusing on children and youth is neither radical nor new. Austria, Belgium, France, Iceland, Bolivia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Guatemala and many other countries have a national office headed by a commissioner for children and youth (9).

In the United Kingdom, the Offices of the Child Commissioner are independent of government and report directly to parliament on an annual basis on child and youth issues (10). Sir Al Aynsley-Green, Children’s Commissioner in England, has emphasized the importance of such an office for children and young people (10) and the value of its independence and reporting structure. As part of the initial work of this office, as reported in 2006, eight overarching themes were developed in consultation with children and young people’s organizations, and these were vetted by children and youth themselves (10):

• Children and young people in society;

• Discrimination;

• Youth justice and antisocial behaviour;

• Bullying;

• Asylum seeking and immigration;

• Vulnerable children;

• Disabled children and young people; and

• The health and well being of children and young people.

All eight themes resonate as issues for children and youth here in Canada, yet we have no independent national office headed by a child and youth commissioner to champion these issues and independently report on the outcomes. No one is charged with ensuring that our federal government legislation, regulations and programs are viewed through the lens of child and youth needs, and that negative and positive impacts are considered before enactment. For example, the national pandemic influenza plan does not specifically address the potential needs of older youth (18 to 24 years of age), yet this age group was one of the hardest hit in the 1918 influenza pandemic (11). Similarly, no one holds the federal government accountable for program cuts that are harmful to children and youth, such as cuts to early child development initiatives. No one provides a public assessment on how we as a country are doing with respect to our child and youth outcomes in terms of their heath and well being.

A national Child and Youth Office could help to move us forward on child and youth rights, and health and well being issues, and would provide a strong public voice when we are not moving ahead. While there is always concern that major problems and issues in our society are not necessarily effectively addressed by merely creating a new national office or commission, with careful thought, this project could ensure that it does provide a truly national voice on behalf of children and youth, and that it exerts a beneficial and cost-effective impact on the health and well being of this population. Having similar offices at the provincial and territorial level also needs to be considered, given the major impact on children and youth of government decisions at that level.

The time has come to seriously examine this oversight – to have a public voice for the needs and rights of children and youth, a voice that helps ensure they grow up in supportive, healthy environments. Improvements in the health and well being of children and youth will provide the firm foundation for a Canada that thrives and prospers throughout the 21st century.