Child welfare advocate seeks public opinion

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Alberta's child welfare advocate is looking for public input into a wide-ranging review of the province's children welfare services.

And advocate Berndt Walter is hoping the review will draw a strong response from the Native community, who make up 30 per cent of the 7,000 cases currently handled by social services.

"I think it's time to re-evaluate what's been accomplished and how we can involve Native people in that," he said. "We want to find out what's out there and what's not out there from the point of view of the community."

Berndt said the relationship between the Native community and the province's social services has not been good, adding that some people view the department as a replacement for the residential school system.

He blamed a 1960s trend of removing Native kids from their homes as the source of many of the problems now facing the system.

Although Alberta rewrote its child welfare laws in the late 1980s, Walter said it is time to find out if the delivery of services is actually meeting community needs. He said recent news stories about children suffering abuse in foster homes has also put the issue in the public spotlight.

One of the key issues for the Native community in this review will be the level and quality of foster care.

"Do we have sufficient Native foster homes for those kids? Are we maintaining links with the culture?"

Michael Farris, who runs an Edmonton-based emergency shelter for children, said one issue he would like to see raised during the review is the level of services for teenagers. He said while current provincial standards look good on paper, they are being applied mostly to pre-teen children.

"Kids don't enjoy full status as citizens," he said. "I think the kids are under-served because they don't have clout, they don't have a vote."

Walter has set up a special office to handle the review and will be accepting written submissions until mid-September. He said review staff will also be available for private interviews and will visit communities and agencies if invited.

(Editor's note: The child welfare advocate's office can be reached toll free at

1-800-661-7560.)