Boy, 3, wanders away from daycare

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This article was published 24/04/2012 (5127 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A mother whose three-year-old son wandered away unnoticed from a daycare is demanding First Nations facilities be regulated.

Stephanie Cochrane, a human resources official for Fisher River Cree Nation, was at work at about 11:30 a.m. on April 11 when her son, Ronin, suddenly appeared without a caregiver.

It took a moment or two to sink in — the child had walked from his daycare to her office, nearly 400 metres down a well-used country road.

She said maternal guilt hasn’t given her a moment’s peace since.

"It’s my job as a parent to ensure my children are safe at all times, and I thought I was doing that, but now I feel I’ve failed," Cochrane said.

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Her concern is shared by the Fisher River government; the director of the daycare is now on a two-week unpaid suspension and the community is working on harmonizing its standards with the province.

The Fisher River Wee Care Centre is the only daycare on the Interlake First Nation, a Cree community on the west side of Lake Winnipeg known for its cottage development and lakeshore environmentalism. It has 14 spaces and operates Monday to Friday from 8:15 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.

Cochrane said she’d been taking her two children to the facility ever since her daughter, now four years old, was 10 months old. Cochrane has yanked both children from the daycare and leaves them at home with a babysitter.

On the morning Ronin left the daycare, Cochrane said she was surprised to hear the sound of her son’s voice and peeked her head around the corner to see the little tyke kicking off his shoes and pulling off his jacket in her office foyer.

"I looked out through the big front window for my husband’s truck. Me and my husband had plans and I assumed he’d picked the kids up early," she said.

Only there was no truck. "That’s when I knew he’d walked here," Cochrane said. "It’s a back road, but there are vehicles zooming back and forth all day. My little guy, he’s three. He could have easily been hit."

Calling the daycare to get an account of the incident added to her worries.

Daycare staff didn’t answer her calls that day, the mother said, adding it was a week later when she and her husband and parents sat down with First Nation officials to discuss it.

"They still haven’t given me an explanation how he got out and I want to do everything I possibly can to make sure this never happens again," Cochrane said.

Steps are underway for the type of regulation Cochrane says is needed.

First Nations’ daycare services fall between the cracks of licensing standards. Child-care licences are awarded by the province but First Nations fall under federal jurisdiction.

A federal program was launched two years ago with a $50-million First Nations and Inuit child-care initiative for 7,000 child-care spaces on 407 First Nations and Inuit communities, including 39 in Manitoba.

Sam Murdock, CEO of Fisher River, said a report for the band in January identified jurisdiction as a major policy issue in daycare, and when Ronin wandered off this month it was a wake-up call. Following the daycare director’s two-week suspension, she’ll be on three months probation, the stiffest discipline the First Nation can exact short of firing a worker.

"We want to adopt what the province has in place," Murdock said.

He said the band is among half a dozen working with the Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre to harmonize their policies with provincial standards. Safety standards, training and procedural protocols are expected to be in place by the fall, he said.

The province said through a spokesman harmonizing standards is an issue gaining ground with Manitoba First Nations in various sectors.

"Services for First Nations residents are the jurisdiction of the federal government, but we do have unique partnerships in important areas like health and education with First Nations," the provincial spokesman said.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca