Child, family services council mothballed

Alberta’s children’s services minister says shutting down an arm’slength council to improve the child intervention system is a matter of streamlining processes.

“The big change was moving things towards the child and youth advocate,” Danielle Larivee said Tuesday.

Saturday marked the last day for the Child and Family Services Council for Quality Assurance, which launched after a 2010 child intervention system review panel.

Child advocate Del Graff is slated to take on some of the work previously conducted by the council. He will be responsible for reviewing the deaths of children in care and publicly reporting on his findings.

Alberta’s all-party ministerial panel — tasked with identifying gaps in the child intervention system — recently released its final 26 recommendations.

Larivee said the government would publicly announce its action plan by June 30 to complete one of the panel’s recommendations.

ALCOHOL-FREE PREGNANCIES

An online contest is asking Albertans to submit mocktail recipes as part of a program to reduce alcohol consumption during pregnancy.

The Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission’s Dry9 campaign launched in December.

Participants can send mocktail recipes to the AGLC via the agency’s social media channels or email. The winner will have a recipe posted online and get a $100 Visa gift card.