New minister’s pledges hold real promise.

Alberta’s new Human Services Minister Manmeet Bhullar released an astonishing number on Wednesday. In the last 14 years, 741 children or young adults with some connection to the province’s child welfare system died.

It’s a statistic that goes far beyond anything Albertans have ever seen, and is much higher than the 145 children reported in the Edmonton JournalCalgary Herald’s Fatal Care series about children directly in government care when they died.

Beyond a basic breakdown describing each child’s connection to the child welfare system, Bhullar provided no details.

But the information on that single sheet of paper held the promise of a brave new era in child welfare; a promise to shine a light on a system that has been shrouded in secrecy for more than a decade.

“We need this data to be public,” Bhullar said. “We need data so we can address emerging issues and trends.

“We need data so that various government departments and agencies can come together to make sure we’re doing the best thing possible to the most vulnerable.”

Bhullar made many important pledges Wednesday to improve the province’s child intervention system, and its sad but necessary death review process. His commitment to creating the “most transparent and accountable public reporting and data sharing system” — one that also balances privacy — was clearly the most critical.

As Bhullar acknowledged, the lives of children and their families are at the heart of this data. That should never be forgotten and will be made easier if he follows through on his commitment to blow the lid off rules that forbid families from identifying children in care, even after their deaths.

But there is much to be learned by looking at the details and seeing what kind of trends emerge. The joint Journal-Herald analysis of 145 deaths found patterns that show the need for revised infant sleep protocols and improved mental health services for teens.

There will be much more to learn from this larger batch of data.

Once those trends are identified, social workers, community leaders, families and politicians can work on the changes needed from a policy and practical perspective. Albertans can hold the government to account. Those patterns are impossible to find, though, if no data are available.

Experts in the social service and family studies fields standing with Bhullar happily said they are available, and eager, to help with that vital work.

Strikingly, Bhullar also said he wants Alberta to review all child deaths, not just those of children in care. This should not take away from the essential work of looking after children in government care, but complement it. There will be important lessons for all Alberta families in this data, as well as eyeopening information for the government. If Bhullar can make the case for other provinces to share the same information nationally, all the better.

Some will, for good reason, be cynical about Bhullar’s intentions. Plenty of Albertans have felt the burn of broken political promises. The child welfare system itself is littered with unheeded reports and reviews. The new minister’s actions in the coming months will speak louder than a single news conference.

All child deaths are tragic. Not doing everything possible to learn from those deaths is shameful. Bhullar’s commitment to a new era of honesty, transparency and accountability holds real promise. It’s the promise of a new era for Alberta’s children.