Alberta child advocate has funding restored

The decision to reinstate money to help investigate child deaths in the province will mean quicker turnaround times on investigations and recommendations to the government, says child and youth advocate Del Graff.

"The sooner that we're able to make those recommendations themore able we are to prevent tragic circumstances, we believe," saidGraff.

"I'm hopeful that our process will be more timely. We've had to slow down a bit because of the lack of resources and now hopefully we'll be able to keep to a time frame we had committed to earlier."

In December 2014 the Tory government cut $275,000 from the child and youth advocate office.

At the time, Graff warned the cut would hurt vulnerable children. He pleaded with a committee of MLAs to restore the funding, but theTory-dominated committee rejected the request.

• Del Graff warns vulnerable children will suffer from cuts

• Alberta auditor general, child advocate face budget cuts

• Tories vote down request to restore funding for child death probes

On Thursday, the legislative offices committee, now made up of different MLAs,unanimously voted to restore the money. Itmeans five more people will be hired to investigate and make recommendations if a child dies while receiving support from the province.

"Any time a child dies, it is a tragedy," Human Services Minister Irfan Sabir said in a statement.

"As government, we have a responsibility to ensure that when a child dies in our care, it is properly investigated, so we can make changes to prevent future tragedies.

"Our government believes independent oversight is crucial to this process. We applaud the decision by the legislative offices committee to restore funding" to the child and youth advocate office, the statement added.

The child advocate investigates the deaths of children who are in the province's care or who are supported by the province.