Much has been said about safety of children in the care of aboriginal agencies, presuming that aboriginal agencies cannot guarantee the safety of children. This is simply a racial stereotype and is not supported by the evidence.
Manitoba's Aboriginal Justice Inquiry commissioners evaluated the aboriginal agencies and found them remarkably effective in dealing with even the most difficult child-welfare cases in a very short period of time with very limited resources.
After the release of the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry report in 1988, many were already hard at work in fledgling aboriginal agencies, under the auspices of tribal councils and financial support of the federal and provincial governments. There were only a few agencies, limited to providing on-reserve services and to being a backup to the child and family services department.
Eventually, the government allowed us to care for our children, but continued as the watchdog and final decision-maker. We reluctantly accepted this system of half-jurisdiction and continued to press for more responsibility.
Finally, in 2000, the province agreed to work with the Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakinak, the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs and the Manitoba Métis Federation to establish a working group that led to the devolution process that the Winnipeg Free Press now bemoans. We were encouraged by the establishment of aboriginal child and family services authorities and the promise of our own standards and protocols.
However, somewhere in the devolution process things went awry.
We asked that devolution happen in stages and that cases be transferred in manageable batches over a few years so we could expand gradually. Instead, government tired of the process and arbitrarily declared May 16, 2005, as the date that all case transfers would take place. Thousands of cases changed hands and children, families and workers were told to "deal with it." We rose to the challenge and dealt with it.
Shortly after, the government declared that devolution complete. This announcement was premature and startling to those of us in the system as we knew that much remained to be done. We had asked for a labour adjustment strategy that would support training and mentoring and instead were told to accept seconded government workers who were reluctant to work for our agencies, none of whom stayed on after the initial period of secondment.
We were prohibited then and now from dealing with the unions directly so that we could work co-operatively with them to ensure proper staffing and training to improve our agencies. Provincial departmental officials promised us that resources would be transferred to our agencies so that our services would be "equivalent" to that of non-aboriginal agencies. Instead, we are still without adequate resources and forced to use resources of non-aboriginal organizations in the south. This is not what we, and the children of Manitoba, were promised.
There is much that is wrong with devolution process that still needs to be fixed. The child-welfare authorities, which appear in name to be aboriginal, are forcing upon us a rigid structure that ignores the historical and cultural infrastructures of our communities. The AJI report specifically cautioned against imposing "outside" models or structures upon the aboriginal agencies by the funding agencies.
However, since 2005 we have been deluged with hundreds of recommendations, new program standards, new minimum hiring qualifications, and now the prospect of new legislation that will impose a uniform, non-aboriginal standard and approach to child welfare. The latest standard of "safety, security and well-being" is being imposed without clear definitions and without regard to the housing and community health conditions that exist on many of our reserves. The hands on the clock are being turned backwards and children will continue to suffer.
We were handed a multi-million dollar system that had an entire government infrastructure to support it and we were given one-tenth of the money to replicate and improve the system. The newly released report of the Auditor General of Canada noted that federal funding for on-reserve child welfare has not kept pace with our population and the funding model has been in place since 1988. We are struggling to keep up with the increasing demands of a young and growing aboriginal population. Every report and every inquest into the new system has called for increased front-line resources and yet we get piecemeal handouts from government.
The North needs front-line workers, counsellors, psychologists, intervention workers and youth care facilities. Instead, we are forced to spend our dollars on a new steering committee office in Winnipeg that will do little to resolve the basic problems in the North. Another layer of bureaucracy and oversight is not needed.
We are working to correct a lifetime of abuse. This sort of healing does not happen in a few years. It will take a generation or more to end the child welfare-youth incarceration connection and to build healthy communities. We need a massive injection of resources to turn our children away from suicide, substance abuse, gangs and violence.
The conclusion of the AJI commissioners should continue to resonate with all of us:
"We believe that the aboriginal child welfare agencies have been an outstanding success and that they warrant further support and encouragement. They are dealing with aboriginal families with sensitivity, commitment and ability. At the same time, it must be recognized that their programs and activities sometimes will become the subject of controversy and criticism. Every time an aboriginal agency stumbles, some critics inevitably will cry out for its dismantling and a return to the old way. But... the old was neither the only way, nor the best way. The need for ongoing support and a commitment to aboriginal child welfare agencies must be recognized and affirmed."
We call upon Manitoba and the child welfare authorities to stay true to the AJI report. We call upon both levels of government to fund the resources needed to allow for our success.
Felix Walker, CEO, Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation Family & Community Wellness Centre and the following executive directors:
Linda Constant, Cree Nation Child & Family Caring Agency; David Monias, Awasis Agency of Northern Manitoba; Alfred Wood, Island Lake Child & Family Services.
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