Alberta's child advocate opposes change to tracking young adult deaths

Alberta's child and youth advocate says she opposes a government move to stop her office from investigating the deaths of vulnerable young adults age 20 and older.

Last week, the government tabled an omnibus bill that would change the advocate's mandate to review the deaths of children and young adults who have interacted with the province's child welfare system. 

"Because we are the only body that's reviewing these deaths, we're not going to hear about them," said Terri Pelton, the province's child and youth advocate said in an interview Monday.

"There might be a spike in young people who are dying at the age of 23 from opioids who had previously been involved with child intervention. And we're not going to know that."

The Office of the Child and Youth Advocate (OCYA) now reviews the deaths and serious injuries of any young person aged 22 and younger who has a file with child and family services, or whose file was active less than two years earlier. 

The office had previously looked into the deaths and injuries of any such young person age 26 and younger.

For the last four years, the advocate's team of 12 investigators has reviewed and reported on at least 80 young people each year who died or were grievously injured.

Should Bill 38, the Red Tape Reduction Statutes Amendment Act, 2025, become law, Pelton's office would no longer receive notifications from the government or medical examiner about the deaths of young people 20 and older.

According to statistics from the advocate's office, that would exclude at least 12 per cent of the death and injury reviews staff have completed during the past three years.

Pelton says the government needs to know whether children who were receiving intervention, or were in government care, are dying so they can change the way they serve children and young adults who now live in precarious circumstances.

The advocate said most parents wouldn't boot their 18-year-olds out the door and ignore their calls for help as they adapt to adult life.

"I think a guardian is responsible to provide additional support — past 18, in my mind, up to 25 at least, because young people's brains are still developing," Pelton said of children in provincial care.

Through the Transition to Adulthood Program (TAP), the province provides financial support to adults formerly in government custody until they are age 22, and some services until they are 24.