PCs renew calls for CFS inquiry

The Progressive Conservatives renewed calls to put Manitoba’s child and welfare system under the microscope Thursday, tabling a motion that urged the province to appoint a commissioner to lead a public inquiry.

Families critic Jodie Byram’s opposition day motion, which was ultimately defeated by the NDP majority, reiterated demands for an inquiry into the systemic failures of Child and Family Services, more than 20 years after the death of Phoenix Sinclair first prompted demands for answers.

“We have seen far too many children die under the care of CFS, and we need to determine where the gaps are in the system in order to make the system a safer place for children,” Byram told reporters before the motion was defeated in the legislature.

Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine said in an interview that her department, CFS agencies and authorities are “doing good work” and won’t call an inquiry.

“I have done so much work in respect of working with the authorities and agencies. The core principle is to ensure that children are safe, and that’s what we’re doing— very strategically and very methodically, working with the system to ensure that children are safe,” the minster said.

The PCs have called for an inquiry since the Feb. 11, 2024 death Myah-Lee Gratton, 17, who reportedly asked to be moved from her CFS placement in a Carman home because it was unsafe. Shortly after, the teen was slain in the home.

“We have seen far too many children die under the care of CFS.”

Ryan Manoakeesick, whom she lived with, was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Myah-Lee, his three children and his common-law wife.

“Since that time, we’ve seen other children tragically killed while they’re in the care of the CFS system,” PC MLA Lauren Stone (Midland) told reporters Thursday. “The minister has been in this chair for three years… it’s time for the minister to take action to find out where those gaps are to provide answers into how these children are falling through the cracks.”

The mother of a four-year-old girl who died in care on Aug. 9 in Long Plain First Nation said she doesn’t think an inquiry will make a difference.

She said concerns about abuse were ignored and protocols weren’t followed.

“That is kind of annoying for me because if they actually listened to me…then my daughter would be alive,” she said Thursday.

Two of the girl’s sisters, aged one and two, were hospitalized with injuries. They’re with family now and doing well, the mother said. She had been working to get her kids back in her care, she said, after they were apprehended in October 2025.

She said there is a lack of accountability from workers and the agencies that receive funding.

“They just did it for the paycheque — they never gave a (care) about the kids because it was all about money to them.”

She doesn’t believe that will change.

“They say they’re going to start improving. There’s not going to be improvement. I guarantee you that.”

“If they actually listened to me…then my daughter would be alive.”

The Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth said more support to keep kids out of the child welfare system is needed more than another inquiry.

“I think that government’s response to issues within the system requires prevention funding and resources to support the children and families who are in the child welfare system,” Sherry Gott said in an email Thursday. “My office has provided recommendations to government over the years, all of which would have a positive impact on the system. I believe that calling for an inquiry would not accomplish what is needed in the system right now.”

A two-year, $14-million inquiry into Phoenix Sinclair’s death examined the failures of front-line social workers — who didn’t intervene during the months Phoenix suffered abuse, including starvation and broken bones all over her body.

The 900-page report, completed in 2015, made 62 recommendations, several of which haven’t been acted upon, including limiting the number of child cases per social worker to 20, and requiring workers to be licensed.

In recent weeks, demonstrators — including the mother of the four-year-old who died in August — have rallied at the Manitoba legislature, calling the abuse and death of children in care a “state of emergency.”

A foster parent pleaded guilty this summer to aggravated assault on a six-year-old girl, who was paralyzed in 2025 after she was repeatedly thrown to the floor. Three other children were removed from the Winnipeg home, which was owned by Island Lake First Nations Family Services, an agency of the First Nations of Northern Manitoba Child and Family Services Authority.

“Every death of a child, particularly in child welfare, is a very sad and tragic event.”

Johnson Redhead, age six, died of exposure in Shamattawa in 2024 after he wandered away from his school’s breakfast program. The boy in care was non-verbal and had been diagnosed with autism.

In June 2024, the death of Xavia Butler, whose partial remains were found in an Interlake barn, raised questions about CFS involvement in the child’s care. The toddler’s former caregiver said the child was raised in an informal kinship placement until CFS placed her with her biological mother.

A 14-year-old girl in care was fatally stabbed near the Graham Avenue bus mall, near police headquarters, just after the lunch hour in December 2023. A 17-year-old boy was arrested.

The families minister said gaps in the system are being addressed.

“Every death of a child, particularly in child welfare, is a very sad and tragic event,” Fontaine said.

“We are working very closely with everybody to make sure that all of the safeguards are in place, that we don’t have another … That’s what we’re doing right now.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca