NDP ready to ‘fight’ for First Nations kids at risk

The Alberta government plans to provide more money and services to children at risk on reserves, then later “fight with the feds if we have to” about the cost, the deputy premier says.

In the wake of another troubling report, deputy premier Sarah Hoffman said Wednesday the province will step in with more cash and other help where child and family services are underfunded on First Nations.

“The federal government obviously has a responsibility to address those funding gaps,” Hoffman said. “We’re not going to wait for them to step up and do the right thing.”

“We’ve been fighting for decades and children deserve better.”

Last year, a ruling from the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal found the federal government discriminated against First Nations children on reserve by chronically underfunding services for children in care. Cindy Blackstock, the social worker who persisted with the complaint, has said child welfare services on reserves receive between 22 and 39 per cent less funding than provincially run agencies.

The federal government has increased its funding to delegated First Nations agencies that oversee child welfare on reserves, promising $120 million more over five years for Alberta services.

Hoffman didn’t have a timeline or a budget for getting more resources into the hands of the onreserve agencies. An agreement will be reached with each one depending on their needs, she said.

For example, the provincial system has more robust support for children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and other disabilities, she said. The province could help provide more prevention services in hopes children won’t be apprehended.

Alberta child and youth advocate Del Graff highlighted three cases in his report Tuesday where children died violently after being returned to their mothers from government care. Two of the children had been under the care of First Nations child welfare agencies.

In addition to recommending agencies work more closely with families when children go home, Graff said he was frustrated by the lack of action on similar recommendations he’s made in the past. Graff has also said jurisdictional lines stop some children from getting the protection they need.

Opposition members who sit on an all-party child intervention panel studying Alberta’s child death review system said they support the idea of a provincial system blind to boundaries.

“An Alberta child is a Alberta child and we should not be letting lines on a map (stop) us from going and helping a little child that’s in serious danger,” Wildrose MLA Jason Nixon said.

Nixon, PC MLA Ric McIver and Alberta Party Leader Greg Clark all said they were frustrated with the government’s lack of transparency about accepting or implementing Graff’s past recommendations.

“There’s a culture of fear, and it’s very closed,” Clark said.

In 2016-17, the Children’s Services ministry served about 10,250 children a month.