‘This is a historic day for us’

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This article was published 28/07/2017 (3004 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Northern Manitoba First Nations have regained control of the organization that supervises Child and Family Services agencies in their communities, ending a period of close to three years under provincial administration.

Families Minister Scott Fielding and Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO) Grand Chief Sheila North Wilson signed an agreement Friday that transfers control of the Northern Authority back to First Nations.

In an event that included a drum ceremony and an exchange of gifts, Fielding and North Wilson said the province and First Nation leadership had worked through many of their differences and established protocols to deal with issues as they arise — and avoid a future government takeover.

“This is a historic day for us,” North Wilson said, noting the transfer of power to a First Nations-appointed board came after months of discussions.

“Our meetings were very meaningful and very frank and very honest, and we built that trust. And that is what reconciliation looks like,” she said.

The former NDP government appointed an administrator to oversee the Northern Authority in November 2014, when it became concerned CFS agencies were not properly tracking children in care. Some 400 kids in care were not properly accounted for, the province said at the time, and in dozens of cases proper criminal, child-abuse registry and other background checks had not been carried out on caregivers.

Fielding said Friday there have been “substantial and positive developments” in the Northern Authority’s central reporting system and on other matters of disagreement between the two sides.

“I think we really made some progress, not just on lifting the order (seizing control of the Northern Authority), but in terms of a trust-respect relationship,” the minister said.

The Northern Authority oversees seven CFS agencies responsible for close to 3,000 kids in care.

First Nations never did accept the premise that CFS agencies had lost track of hundreds of kids in care, North Wilson said Friday. But she acknowledged the authority that supervised them didn’t have all of the information it needed.

She also said First Nation leaders remain concerned about the large numbers of Indigenous children in care.

Issie Frost, the provincial administrator who ran the Northern Authority after the province fired its board in November 2014, said while the central child-tracking process “was not as it should have been,” the children under the care of CFS agencies were “accounted for.”

“They were safe and they were not at risk,” Frost said Friday.

A six-person First Nations-appointed board is now in control of the Northern Authority.

The government and First Nations leaders said they hope the successful discussions — that led to the transfer of oversight for CFS agencies back to Indigenous control — will serve as a blueprint for a new era of co-operation on other matters.

“We’ve come to understand each other, hopefully trust each other and (will) work together on other issues,” Chief Chris Baker said. Baker, of O-Pipon-Na-Piwin Cree Nation, north of Thompson, played a key role in the CFS discussions with the province.

Meanwhile, Fielding said the provincial government will be introducing “comprehensive” child-welfare reforms, promised in last fall’s throne speech, “in the next number of weeks.”

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca