Child welfare agencies working with troubled aboriginal families in Manitoba will get $177 million in new federal funding over the next five years to try to help keep children from being taken away from their parents on reserves.

Aboriginal children account for 80 per cent of those who are receiving care in Manitoba from child welfare agencies, which are guided by devolved regional aboriginal authorities.

The announcement was made July 19 by Conservative MP Shelly Glover from Saint Boniface riding, on behalf of Chuck Strahl, minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and federal interlocutor for Métis and non-status Indians, along with Gord Mackintosh, Manitoba’s minister of family services and consumer affairs, together with Grand Chief Ron Evans of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs.

Funding for the enhanced prevention-focused approach will help more First Nations children and parents get the help they need to prevent the types of crises that lead to intervention and family breakdown, said Glover.

"Today's announcement demonstrates the positive and growing working relationship we have with Manitoba," Glover said. "Children represent the future of First Nations communities in Manitoba – and today’s announcement demonstrates our shared commitment to improving conditions for First Nations children and youth. With this announcement, six provinces will have reached historic tripartite frameworks for child and family services with our government."

The framework with Manitoba and First Nations in Manitoba will provide over $177 million over five years to implement an enhanced prevention-focused approach to First Nations child and family services (FNCFS) on reserves in Manitoba.

"This framework caps years of hard work by the province and First Nations chiefs to correct historic imbalances and provide similar services across the province, regardless of where children live,” Mackintosh said. "Just as importantly, it will allow us to provide services and support for families under stress and in many cases prevent the need to take children into care."

"This new funding model and enhancement framework will assist in decreasing the number of children in care and support families to stay together," said Evans. "It will also assist agencies so they will have the resources available to support children and families they work with in our communities. Prevention is critical to positive change for our people."

Indian and Northern Affairs Canada says when the reforms are complete they “will be well on its way” to “ensuring roughly 68 per cent of on-reserve children have access to enhanced prevention services.”

First Nation child and family service agencies in Manitoba, in collaboration with INAC and the province, will develop individual business plans that outline goals, outcomes and expectations and will be required to provide annual reports on these to access the new funding. Agencies will be required to ensure that results are obtained, measured and reported under this new regime.

This new funding will be conditional upon agencies meeting accountability requirements, in order to ensure that the funds will be used for their intended purpose and will serve the best interests of children and families.

INAC continues to discuss implementation of the new funding approach with willing provincial and First Nations partners. Since the launch of the new approach in 2007, frameworks have been reached in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Prince Edward Island and now Manitoba.

Under the six tripartite frameworks, more than $100 million per year in additional funding will be dedicated to the new approach by 2012-13. The goal is to have all provinces on board for the

The Manitoba funding, which amounts to more than $35 million a year, is the largest child welfare deal signed by any province to date. The funding will boost the number of social workers on reserves and add new services and programs families need to address issues that lead to abuse and neglect.

Studies have shown that until recently for every dollar the provinces spend on child welfare programs, Ottawa has generally spent only 78 cents. The federal government, however, is entirely responsible for funding child welfare services for children living on reserves, which means children who live in some of the most troubled communities in Manitoba have received less money to help their families prevent abuse or neglect with social workers and outreach programs.

It has only been when children on reserves have been taken into care that Ottawa has paid dollar for dollar what the provinces pay, which has led to a large number of aboriginal children being taken away from their parents because under funded and strapped aboriginal child welfare agencies saw little other choice.

The formula Ottawa used in Manitoba to fund child welfare on reserves hadn’t been updated since 1993 and assumed that six per cent of reserve children are in care.

Federal auditor general Sheila Fraser said in 2007 eight per cent of children living on reserves were in care -- eight times the rate of non-reserve children.

Some reserves in Manitoba have more than half their children in foster care. In 2009, there were more than 8,600 children in care across Manitoba. Eighty-six per cent of them were aboriginal and one-third were living on reserves when taken into care.

The number of aboriginal children in care is also growing at a faster rate. Last year, the number of children in care with aboriginal child welfare agencies in Manitoba grew more than 13 per cent while those in the care of non-aboriginal agencies went down more than one per cent.

There are more aboriginal children in foster care than there were in residential schools, aboriginal leaders have pointed out.
What looked like earlier deals between the province and federal government on the issue fell apart. The first deal was negotiated in 2005 with the former Liberal government of Prime Minister Paul Martin, but it was canned when the Conservatives came to power in February 2006.

In 2008, Manitoba was preparing to hire 200 new social workers, thinking it close to signing $21 million a year deal for federal child welfare funding; the only deals completed then were with Quebec and Prince Edward Island.