Too many First Nations children are in government care
Alberta’s Child and Youth Advocate says “there is no priority more urgent and pressing for children in care” than the disproportionately high number of aboriginal children in government care. The advocate’s latest annual report states that of the roughly 6000 youth in permanent care 69 per cent of them are aboriginal though First Nations youth account for only nine per cent of all Albertans 0 to 17 years old. Those ratios are similar in other levels of protection. Government statistics also show that the proportion of First Nations children taken into care has been swelling for decades.
“It’s not that government has done nothing” says Del Graff the provincial child and youth advocate. “In this year’s report I’m describing what I see as not enough action.”
Graff notes that the government has addressed the issue in recent years by assigning an assistant deputy minister of Human Services to develop a policy on Native children in care discussions with First Nations stakeholders are ongoing and more aboriginal children are placed with aboriginal foster families in the hopes of maintaining cultural stability.
“What I’m talking about is the need for action while those discussions are taking place. So talking about the issues identifying ways that the system might move ahead is one thing. Taking action to try to reduce both the number of aboriginal children coming in to government care and how long they’re staying in government care — that is a different level of concrete action that I think needs to be implemented” says Graff.
“There are some ways to kind of think about this as being somewhat predictable in terms of what we would expect from a people who have had the kind of history that aboriginal people have had in this country. At the same time we think there is potential where government is committed and creates concrete action plans that they can in fact reverse this trend” he says.
