Children's health must come before funding fights: Liberals

Manitoba's Liberal leader is pushing the province to put a "child-first" policy in place when dealing with the health of aboriginal children.

Liberal leader Jon Gerrard cited the case of Jordan, an aboriginal boy who was the focus of a recent article in Paediatrics and Child Health, the journal of the Canadian Paediatric Society.

The advocacy article in the journal says the boy, who is only referred to by his first name, was born in 1999 in a northern First Nations community. He had a complex genetic disorder that required specific medical care.

After being hospitalized in Winnipeg for two years, the article says, Jordan was medically ready to be placed into specialized foster care but that never happened due to an intergovernmental dispute over who would pay for his ongoing care.

Jordan died at age four, having lived his entire life in an institutional setting.

• PAEDIATRICS AND CHILD HEALTH: Honouring Jordan (.pdf file)

Gerrard says the intergovernmental wrangling resulted in a poor quality of life during the boy's last days.

"The Manitoba government failed to provide Jordan with the basic human right to be cared for in home and family environment. Why? Because the NDP government spent the remaining two years of Jordan's life bickering with the federal government over the small details of who would pay for what part of Jordan's home care," Gerrard said during question period at the legislature Thursday.

Gerrard called on the province to adopt "Jordan's principle" in the boy's honour, requiring the government to put a child's interests before any intergovernmental dispute over funding.

The province should have immediately provided Jordan with foster home care and then sorted out how to split the bills later," Gerrard said in a release.

Health Minister Tim Sale said he was "saddened" by Jordan's story, but insisted the interests of children do come first under provincial laws.

Noting the cost of caring for a child such as Jordan could top $300,000 per year, Sale said an interim solution has been arranged with the federal government for use in similar circumstances.

"We did not make the situation. We did not cause the situation, but we will act in the best interests of children," he said.

"We will continue to advocate that First Nations children who have the right to medical care under treaty, have the right to be served, will be provided with that right, and will be served properly in this province."

The Paediatrics and Child Health article says more than 950 First Nations children in Manitoba were identified as having severe or profound disabilities in 2002.