Liberals won’t put figure on closing ‘funding gap’ in Indigenous child welfare

The next federal budget will include more money for First Nations child welfare services on reserves, federal Indigenous Services Minister Jane Philpott said Wednesday — but she stopped short of saying how much.

The Liberal government is keen to fix the “funding gap” in the resources available to Indigenous children as compared with nonIndigenous kids, Philpott said Wednesday as she spoke to chiefs at a special meeting convened by the Assembly of First Nations.

We will work with relevant partners in the coming months to define the policy and funding needed to address this gap.

She referenced the Liberal government’s Budget 2016 allocation of $635 million for child welfare supports before acknowledging that the Liberals have since been called out repeatedly, including on human rights grounds, for not doing enough.

“You and other partners, as well as the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, have highlighted that more must be done,” she told Indigenous leaders. “You have noted the gap between the resources provided for child welfare for Indigenous children and non-Indigenous children.

“We will work with relevant partners in the coming months to define the policy and funding needed to address this gap, and include it in Budget 2018.”

Details, however, were not forthcoming. Philpott said later she still needs to discuss precise funding levels with Finance Minister Bill Morneau.

Both the AFN and the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society want the federal government to earmark more money for the problem, pointing to a unanimous motion passed last month in the Commons calling for an immediate $155-million cash infusion.

Caring Society executive director Cindy Blackstock, who has been lobbying various governments on the child welfare issue for more than a decade, said the effectiveness of whatever action the government ends up taking will have to be measured at the grassroots level in terms of its impact on kids.

She did acknowledge, however, a “significant change” since Philpott took on the Indigenous Services portfolio.

“There’s been much more openness to discussion,” Blackstock said. “I definitely see a difference in tone, and now I want to see differences in children’s lives.”

The federal government has said it plans to hold an emergency meeting on Indigenous child welfare in January.