Number of infants in care increasing in province

Children only Apprehended when ‘Absolutely necessary’: minister

The number of babies in the province being taken away from their families during their first weeks of life continues to rise.

In 2013, there were 104 apprehensions of children less than 30 days of age. In 2017, there were 148.

That data was made public by the NDP, which acquired it in a Freedom of Information request.

Party leader Ryan Meili said he was concerned with the numbers, saying they are “really going in the wrong direction” and the provincial government should be “doing everything we can to have no apprehensions.

“Why would we be separating babies from their moms in those crucial days and weeks, unless it was absolutely necessary?” he asked.

Social Services Minister Paul Merriman said the province “only apprehends children when absolutely necessary, when the safety of the child is deemed to be in jeopardy” and that when they do, efforts are made to keep a child in the community or with a family member.

Merriman pointed to an increase in mental health issues and addictions in the province, as well as more people “dealing with some difficult times” as reasons why the numbers have gone up, rather than down.

Meili accepted more “extreme circumstances” will take place as a result of more poverty, saying it was “encouraging” the government accepts it is failing elsewhere — but he maintained separating families from babies is a “failure of the whole province.”

He charged the government has “a culture of pre-determined apprehension that really needs to be re-examined” as well as a “disconnect” between the health care professionals working with families throughout a pregnancy and social services, telling reporters there is “no communication”.

The NDP leader also said it is an “absolute failure” that the only recourse for people to try and get a child back is to appeal to the same institution responsible for taking away children in the first place. He said there was “no process by which families can get access to justice in situations where they have wrongly been separated from children.”

Merriman said he wants to complete a review of foster care in Saskatchewan, which began in 2012, “in the near future” but said he has a concern of moving too fast, in part because the needs of clients continue to change.