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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Feds ignoring reserves' kids, province fumes

No welfare funding reform this year

By: Mary Agnes Welch and Mia Rabson

Posted: 10/13/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

The Harper government won't reform Manitoba's aboriginal child welfare funding this year, which means reserves won't get 200 more social workers caring for abused or neglected children.

That news from Ottawa has the province incensed.

"Despite independent reports and a human rights complaint and the Auditor General hammering the federal government, they appear to be turning their backs on on-reserve children in this province," said Family Services and Housing Minister Gord Mackintosh. "The test of a caring government is how it treats its most vulnerable citizens. This is a test."

In a letter sent late last month, Manitoba demanded a meeting with Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl. The province received a two-line kiss-off.

At issue is the arcane formula that governs how Ottawa funds child welfare services for kids on reserve -- about 3,500 children in Manitoba who fall under federal jurisdiction.

Ottawa's cash already falls well short of what the province spends on kids off-reserve. And federal cash only kicks in when a child is taken into care. That's a "perverse incentive" to take kids away from families instead of spending money on prevention, family counselling and other supports, says Mackintosh.

About a year-and-a-half ago, the province and federal civil servants launched intensive negotiations to reform the 20-year-old funding formula and had nearly reached a deal that would see Ottawa infuse $22 million a year into Manitoba's struggling child welfare system.

That would have hired another 200 social workers on reserves, many to focus on abuse prevention and family support so more kids could avoid foster care.

Mackintosh said the province believed Ottawa was on side and even wrote to Strahl in May asking if he had any outstanding concerns.

In late summer, it became clear that Manitoba wasn't in line for cash this fiscal year. That's despite the fact that new funding was announced for Quebec and Prince Edward Island, and provinces like Alberta, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan already have new formulas.

A spokesman for Strahl said the government is moving on an issue that was ignored by the former Liberal government.

"In three-and-a-half short years, half the provinces have agreements and we are working hard to bring the others on board," said Ted Yeomans, Strahl's director of communications.

He said the plan is to have all provinces on board with the "Enhanced Prevention-Focused Approach" by 2013.

But the problem is more urgent than that, and more nuanced than simply hiring 200 new social workers, said Elsie Flette, the chief executive officer of the Southern child welfare authority.

Aboriginal kids on reserves already lack the same menu of programs and counselling available to those off reserve and caseloads are much higher.

The Doer government has recently funded 100 more social workers and is about to hire another 100 to help kids in provincial care.

And the province is almost ready to roll out a new child-welfare model designed to help kids and families before a crisis or abuse happens. The federal cash and the staff and programming it would pay for are critical elements to the new family-support model.

maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 13, 2009 A6

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