Provincial government condemns Ottawa’s CFS plan

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This article was published 28/02/2019 (2424 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — The Liberals’ long-awaited plan to reduce the number of Indigenous kids in foster care has received instant backlash from Manitoba, the epicentre of the child-welfare problem.

“This is a very significant change in the child-welfare system, and I don’t believe they adequately consulted us on this,” provincial Families Minister Heather Stefanson told the Free Press Thursday.

“We felt we could have been a key player at exercising change in this area, that is in the best interest of children.”

Meanwhile, the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC) says the federal reform of child and family services (CFS) doesn’t allow enough devolution.

Both were reacting hours after federal Indigenous Services Minister Seamus O’Regan tabled a bill that would allow Indigenous groups to form agreements with Ottawa to take control of CFS agencies — and go over the head of reluctant provinces.

Bill C-92 comes a year after Ottawa called an emergency summit to deal with the massive disproportion of Indigenous children apprehended by CFS agencies, often for reasons related to poverty.

Manitoba leads the country in both the amount and rate of child apprehensions, 87 per cent of which involve Indigenous kids.

The Pallister government is working on an overhaul of its own CFS structure, which was semi-devolved to authorities led by First Nations and Métis in 2003.

Currently, CFS authorities uphold provincial laws and manage budgets from federal and provincial governments. Both levels of government have altered their funding formulas in the past year, because of a controversial incentive where CFS agencies’ budgets are largely based on how many kids they’ve apprehended, leaving scant money for prevention work and parental training.

Thursday’s federal bill would enable Indigenous governing bodies (such as bands, tribal councils and Métis communities) to enter “co-operation agreements” with Ottawa, to affirm their “inherent right” and jurisdiction over CFS and create their own laws and agencies.

It requires Indigenous groups to try including their provinces, whom Ottawa can override after 12 months of “reasonable efforts” to include them.

Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) said Thursday a roundtable of provinces and Indigenous partners would define “reasonable” efforts; the bill lists no criteria.

AMC Grand Chief Arlen Dumas said the bill “is not specific enough” to affirm First Nations jurisdiction and slammed Ottawa as “interlopers taking our corporate knowledge and spinning it for their own desires.”

The AMC has drafted its own bill, and signed an agreement with Ottawa in December 2017 to affirm its role in devolution. That left Dumas “very disappointed” in Bill C-92.

“It builds upon a lot of good words, but there’s actually no teeth to it,” Dumas told reporters in Winnipeg. “You’re still beholden to the auspices of the authorities.”

Yet the Manitoba Metis Federation hailed Bill C-92. The head of its federal body, Clément Chartier, told reporters “implementation could prove to be a challenge but (the) desire is there.”

Stefanson said she’ll review the bill and hear what Indigenous leaders have to say. She’s open to looking at changes to retrofit the existing authorities, or to overhaul the entire structure.

O’Regan assured Trudeau-appointed senators the bill won’t put minority and provincial interests into conflict — both are ground for the Senate to kill legislation — and that he’s already planned a meeting with the Conservatives to prioritize the bill for the last four sitting months of Parliament.

Former ISC minister Jane Philpott gave an impassioned speech, recounting Winnipeg mothers having their children taken away from maternity wards due to so-called birth alerts. She said Manitoba seemed enthusiastic about the federal overhaul.

“This is essential for our entire country,” she said. “There’s going to be a heck of a lot of hard work ahead, but this is going to change people’s lives.”

Kevin Hart, the Manitoba regional chief for the Assembly of First Nations, said the legislation could stop many Indigenous kids from ending up in homes that strip them of their culture.

Hart said he expects “push-back from the non-native foster parents out there” because it will undercut “an industry that perpetrates genocide.”

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca