Larivee ‘cautiously optimistic’ on getting help for Indigenous youth

A two-day emergency meeting on Indigenous child and youth welfare in Ottawa has the Alberta minister “cautiously optimistic.”

While the federal Liberals have said Ottawa will make up the underfunding for Indigenous children across the country in the next budget, the province has said it too will step in to make up the shortfall.

“Alberta won’t wait,” Alberta Children’s Services Minister Danielle Larivee said in a teleconference Friday afternoon after the meeting wrapped up. “And we won’t let Indigenous children wait any longer.”

Larivee said the province already is funding federal jurisdiction through the support of clean water and housing on Alberta reserves.

When pressed for the dollar amount to fill in the federal gaps or for a date when assistance would be rolled out, Larivee had no specific answers.

“It’s basically going to be a community by community conversation,” she said.

More than 400 federal and provincial politicians, Indigenous leaders, social workers and former foster kids went to Ottawa for the meeting, which broke up without any specific next steps planned.

The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled in 2016 that the underfunding of on-reserve Indigenous children was discrimination. Larivee said the government does not want to impose solutions on communities.

“All of this is wrong and we didn’t need another meeting to know that,” she said. “After decades of studies and recommendations and meetings and court orders, enough is enough. We came to this meeting looking for action for a firm commitment from the federal government to equitably fund on-reserve services.”