Jean talks about funding for aboriginal family and child services - October 19, 2009

Ms. Jean Crowder (Nanaimo—Cowichan, NDP): Madam Speaker, I am rising on a question that I raised in May to do with the Auditor General's report from 2008 on first nations child and family services. I had asked the minister a question about when the government would live up its responsibility to consult first nations and appropriately fund the child and family services program.

To put it into context, I want to briefly refer to the Auditor General's report in which she indicates the severity of the problem, as shown by the INAC data, in that about 5% of first nations children living on-reserve are in care. This is almost eight times the number of children in care residing off-reserve. She also points out that according to a parallel audit that was done, 51% of children in care in British Columbia are aboriginal. These are pretty shocking numbers.

The Auditor General also indicates in the report that under federal and provincial policies, aboriginal children including first nations children should have equitable access to services comparable in level and quality to those provided to other children.

Subsequently the department came before the public accounts committee and reported on some of its action plan, but part of the heart of this matter is the fact that there is a differential between what the provinces pay for off-reserve children and what on-reserve children are entitled to.

In a letter that came out on August 19, 2009 the department states that
..INAC cannot commit to conducting such a comprehensive review nor can it be done for all jurisdictions by the timelines required by the Committee. INAC would be able to provide a basic comparison of jurisdictions that are currently under the Enhanced Prevention [program] and where INAC has basic information on salary rates...
and it goes on to indicate that it would have some of its preliminary work done by December 31, 2009.

However, in the Auditor General's report, she points out that the funding program that she was talking about in 2008 was designed in 1988 and has not been significantly modified since. The government participated in a couple of different reports. There were the two policy reviews, one of which was a national policy review in 2000 and then there was the Wende report in 2005, in which there was significant work done around identifying the fact that there needed to be this provincial review.

In 2008 the Auditor General identified the fact that there were gaps in service. It is not just the current government's responsibility. This has been going on for a long time. Previous governments were fully aware of the fact that there was this enormous gap in funding.

Yet now we are being told to wait longer. In fact in the public accounts report, under recommendation No. 4, where there is talk about modifying directive 20-1, which concerns the funding that first nations child and family service agencies get, it is indicated that the hope and objective are that all remaining jurisdictions will be ready for transition by 2013.

Therefore there are a couple of issues that come up. Since this is a long-standing piece of information, I wonder why the government does not look at putting in place interim funding to close that 22% gap between federal and provincial services, and put in interim funding until it can get accurate and comparable data from coast to coast to coast.

I would agree that there need to be different models across this country recognizing regional differences. However, we should not simply tell first nations that they have to wait another four, five or six years since if that report comes out in 2013 we actually will not have the new funding.

Why can the government not put in place interim funding?

Mr. John Duncan (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, CPC): Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise today in response to the question from the member for Nanaimo—Cowichan. I would like to add that tomorrow we will be dealing in depth with this issue at the aboriginal affairs committee. The member for Nanaimo—Cowichan has done good work on this. I am sure there will be many questions asked and answered tomorrow.

Our government is moving forward with ready and willing partners. We are committed to making changes to child and family services and we want to build stronger and healthier first nation families. We do not work alone. Provinces have jurisdiction over child welfare both on and off reserve and, in some cases, the provinces have delegated this authority to first nations child welfare agencies and first nations staff.

The move of the child and family services program to a more enhanced and prevention based approach began with the Alberta framework in June 2007. This involves Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Treaty First Nations and the Province of Alberta. We are continuing to work with other provinces and first nations on frameworks that will result in better outcomes for first nations children. We have worked, created and entered into partnerships with Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan and first nations agencies in those provinces.

Our commitment is clearly demonstrated by the funds allocated in Canada's economic action plan. We have provided a further $20 million over the next two years to ensure further progress through frameworks in Prince Edward Island and Quebec and we are working hard on these prevention based approaches that now cover five provinces and nearly half the first nation children in Canada. We are working hard to put in place similar partnerships across Canada.

We are getting the job done. Our government is committed to working together with these partners and we will not move forward without a tripartite approach. Child welfare requires the active involvement of all partners, the family and the first nation child welfare agencies on reserve, as well as the federal, provincial and territorial governments.

Ms. Jean Crowder: Madam Speaker, I would agree that the government has taken some important steps. I also agree that we need all three parties at the table, the federal, provincial and first nations governments, particularly since many of the child welfare services are being delivered by first nations communities. I also agree that other work needs to be done.

However, I still wonder why we cannot look at some interim funding. We know that first nation governments across the country have been handicapped over a number of years by the 2% funding cap that was imposed in 1995. It seems that we are acknowledging that there is a funding differential.

Why would we not put interim funding in to at least alleviate some of the pressures on these communities? Many of them have poor, inadequate housing and poor water. Remote communities do not have access to the same kinds of services as more urban communities.

Again I would ask the government why it does not put interim funding in while the rest of this work unfolds.

Mr. John Duncan: Madam Speaker, I appreciate the fact that the member does recognize that we have made significant progress on this issue.

However, I would like to reinforce the fact that a lot of people are delivering these services and if we do not enter into a tripartite agreement we could end up not knowing where to best allocate the moneys that we are talking about.

The funding in the five jurisdictions that we are already talking about comes to $61 million a year when fully implemented. That could probably be almost doubled when we enter into further agreements. This is a significant commitment.

We have demonstrated a new and practical approach to working with aboriginal governments, aboriginal organizations, provinces and territories to address these clear priorities throughout Canada. This is paying off and we are seeing results.