Manitoba CFS agencies now have option of placing kids with extended family, community

Changes to Manitoba's Child and Family Services will allow agencies to place kidsin care with extended family or people within their home community, rather than someonethe child's family doesn't know.

The new changes, outlined in a law passed by the former Progressive Conservative government last year,came into effect Oct. 1, and areaimed at keeping more families together, Nahanni Fontaine, the province's familiesminister, said at a Friday news conference.

"If a child comes in, [an] agency now has the legislative tools to be able to look at grandma, auntie folks that are in community, that are in the same cultural group, that can take this child," Fontaine said.

"And more importantly, there are financial supports now for these agreements."

More than 80 per cent of kids in care in Manitoba are Indigenous, but the changes are expected to reduce the number of Indigenous children in the system, the minister said.

Parents retain guardianship

Under the changes, CFS agencies can nowexplore family support, kinship care, customary care and voluntary care agreements when considering a child's placement.

Parents will retain guardianship of their childrenduring those placements, and will have access to additional supports. The province is also putting up $10 million to support familiesand community members caring for children under these new arrangements.

Under the previous rules, a child who entered CFS care was often placed in foster care or a group home, and their parentslost guardianship.

Fontaine said thatwas an outcomeparents didn't want.

"I don't think that if you were to ask any family that has experience in respect of child welfare that they would say, 'Yes, Iwanted the court to take away my parental rights,'" she said.

"Parents, communities and nations want their children. We deserve to be able to have our children."

She said once parents become aware of the changes, "they will be reaching out toCFS agencies to ask for those agreements."

'I just needed a little bit of support'

Cynthia Broadfoot, a member of Norway House Cree Nation, said she wishes theseoptions were available in the mid-1990s.

She was struggling with depressionwhen she went toCFS for help. The agency responded by taking away her kids,and she didn't get them back.

"I thoughtI would get my kids back in a year, two years, five years, 10 years it still didn't happen. And yet I had individuals, people in power and professionals who had confidence in my parenting. I just needed a little bit of support," she said at Friday's news conference.

Broadfoot said if thesupports in place under the new legislation were available in her case,her kids would have been able to returnto her homein a year or two.

"This is a really good day. It's also a healing day for me, and also a hope for others the younger generation," she said tearfully,afterrecalling her "horrible" experience with the child welfare system.

Fontaine said the newamendments to the Child and Family Services Act addressesrecommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to reduce the number of Indigenous children in care,and affirm the right of Indigenous governments to establish and maintain their own child welfare agencies.