Inuit, Nunavut officials “cautiously optimistic” about child welfare

Indigenous Services Minister Jane Philpott, Indigenous-Crown Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett and ITK President Natan Obed at an emergency meeting in Ottawa last month on Indigenous child-welfare problems. (PHOTO COURTESY OF ITK)

Nunavut and Inuit leaders are cautiously optimistic following the release of a federal government action plan aimed at reducing the disproportionate number of Indigenous youth in Canada’s child welfare system, officials have told Nunatsiaq News in the wake of an emergency meeting in Ottawa last month.

Data collected in 2016 shows that Indigenous children make up 7.7 per cent of Canada’s children, but account for 52 per cent of all children placed in foster care.

Inuit leaders and the Government of Nunavut stress that more work must be done, particularly in gathering data, before any real headway can be made in the crisis.

Natan Obed, the president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, attended the two-day meeting, organized by Indigenous Services Minister Jane Philpott, shortly before she unveiled the six-point action plan, Jan. 25.

The action points, Obed said, “are a start,” but the federal government must follow them up with funding, as well as Inuit-specific discussions.

“We hope that the in the [next federal] budget that there will be specific commitments to fund these action points.”

Obed may not have to wait long. Finance Minister Bill Morneau said last week that he’ll present the next federal government budget on Feb. 27.

Philpott’s action points include fully implementing orders from the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal to reform First Nations child and family services and move to a flexible funding scheme.

On Feb. 1—six days after the action points were released—the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal issued its fourth non-compliance order against the Government of Canada, citing the government’s approach to Indigenous child welfare as discriminatory.

The action points called on Ottawa to provide more culturally appropriate programming for prevention, early intervention and family programming, among other directives to sit down with affected communities on proposed “co-developed” federal legislation.

Most importantly, Obed said new commitments to collect inter-jurisdictional data on child welfare in Canada would help federal, provincial and territorial governments asses needs and capacity.

The deputy minister of Nunavut’s Department of Family Services, Yvonne Niego, told Nunatsiaq News that the Government of Nunavut supports the action points drafted from the meeting.

But officials at the meeting noted “there was a bit of confusion on what the meeting was trying to accomplish.”

Niego explained that a more comprehensive federal strategy could be drafted once the parties have more data to work with.

But problems with the Government of Nunavut’s capacity to hire frontline workers are self-evident, she noted.

“The goal, in the immediate term, is to provide culturally and linguistic programming options for those children out of the territory, but also find ways to build the infrastructure to repatriate those children,” she said.

Following the meeting, the Family Services department committed itself to hosting discussions with a Nunavut-specific focus, Niego said.

“We want to make sure all of our Inuit organizations, child advocacy office, [and] everyone in kids and care are given the opportunity to speak,” Niego said.

Nunavut’s representative for children and youth, Sherry McNeil-Mulak, said her office has dealt with 184 individual child advocacy cases since her office opened its doors in 2015.

Of those, 118 cases have directly involved child welfare issues, she said.

“It’s an area that we as an office have grown very familiar with.”

McNeil-Mulak also attended the emergency meeting, and said resources for child welfare in Nunavut are lacking “across the board,” but that the action points are “a good place to start from.”

After collecting data, McNeil-Mulak said the next priority must be to invest in local capacity, with a focus on Inuit-specific child care.

One way to do that would be by introducing a bachelor of social work program through Nunavut Arctic College.

“There needs to be a real movement towards building a stronger, homegrown work force in Nunavut,” she said.

“Young people that are seeking support from the child welfare system are some of our most vulnerable children, and we can’t forget that.”