Children apprehended needlessly - report

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First Nations in Manitoba should take over their child welfare systems, states a major report released last month in Winnipeg.

Prepared by the First Nations Child and Family Task Force, the report outlines a three-stage action plan in which full jurisdiction over child and family services would be transferred to First Nations communities within a period of about five years.

According to Professor Wally Fox-Decent, chair of the six-member task force, the existing child and family welfare system in Manitoba fails to meet the needs of First Nations children or their communities.

As part of the move toward community-control over child and family services, the task force recommended the development of a new set of standards by First Nations people, to decide what is culturally appropriate and what is in keeping with the socio-economic realities of First Nations communities.

The task force also recommended that any apprehension of children at risk be guided by the First Nations tradition of shifting responsibility to the extended family or the local community wherever possible.

"Statistics, studies, commissions, visits and presentations - all have made us realize that these children continue to be at risk when they are completely removed from their homes and cultural environments," the report said. "The results of this practice have been tragic and costly."

Under the current system, First Nations communities in Manitoba receive child and family services through one of eight First Nations agencies, which are mandated under provincial legislation and funded through the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs (INAC).

The chief weakness with these agencies, the task force found, was their centralized nature and sometimes rigid adherence to the provincial Child and Family Services Act.

During seven months of public hearings in 12 First Nations communities and three urban centres, the task force learned that communities had become frustrated over their lack of meaningful involvement in decisions concerning their children and families.

And because First Nations communities were shut out of the decision-making process, the task force further found that the apprehension of children had become the first, rather than the last, resort.

As statistics revealed, First Nations agencies presently spend over 45% of their budget maintaining children in alternative care compared to less than 3% keeping them out of care through the delivery of support services to families.

One of the two most important recommendations made by the task force was that the province immediately establish a First Nations Child and Family Services Directorate.

The Directorate would then assume full administrative authority over First Nations children living both on and off-reserve, and begin implementing the remaining recommendation put forth by the task force.

The second most important recommendation, to occur during the second stage of the task force action plan, was the federal government enact a First Nations Child and Family Welfare Act in the near future.

With the passage of this act, the province would be relieved of its legislative authority over First Nations child and family service, which would in turn pass to the directorate.

And the directorate, now armed with legislative authority, would then begin the process of decentralization this authority to First Nations communities ready, willing and able to accept the responsibility.

During the final stages of the action plan, both the directorate and federal law would disappear as First Nations communities began operating their own child and family services on an autonomous basis.

Other recommendations put forth by the task force include:

- the immediate establishment of appropriate agencies to assume full control over service delivery to First Nations children living off-reserve in urban centres.

- the adoption and development of a First Nations case work mode/process.