Dr. Raven Sinclair. Photo courtesy uregina.ca
An expert in Indigenous child welfare continues to push against inequities in funding for Indigenous child welfare agencies.
Dr. Raven Sinclair is a professor of social work at the University of Regina and has been a repeated advocate for Indigenous children in Canada’s welfare system.
“The whole system is set up for us to have a disadvantage,” said Sinclair at a conference in Saskatoon this week.
Just last year, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled the federal government discriminated against First Nation children by underfunding First Nation child and welfare agencies. However, nothing concrete has come from the landmark decision, despite three compliance orders from the Tribunal toward the government since the decision.
Dr. Sinclair says the funding models and legislation that contributed to the funding inequities are still in place.
“It’s an entrenched inequitable system, so the outcome for any child and welfare agency is discrepant funding,” she said.
Sinclair drew attention to the Directive 20-1 funding model, which was a federal model implemented by the provinces.
A paper entitled The Structure of Aboriginal Child Welfare in Canada, published in The International Indigenous Policy Journal, discusses the Directive 20-1 model.
“From 1992 until 2007, First Nation child welfare agencies in every province were funded under the Directive 20-1 formula. The legislation has been criticized for underfunding services for First Nations children, failing to fund preventative or support services for families of children who are not in care, and as a result, for contributing to the overrepresentation of children in care.”
In 2008, many jurisdictions shifted to the Enhanced Prevention Focused Funding model to address some of the key criticisms of Directive 20-1. However, some critics continue to say the EPFF model reproduces some of the same issues that were raised under Directive 20-1.
According to Sinclair, if the government continues to use these “outdated” models, the funding inequities will never be rectified.
Sinclair says the statistics speak for themselves. Indigenous children make up 80 per cent of children in care and less than 7 per cent of the population. In Saskatchewan, Indigenous kids are 12 times more likely to end up in foster care. Indigenous agencies received 20 per cent to 40 per cent less funding per capita for child and family services.
She also says in some cases, social workers working on-reserve would make up to $2,000 less per month for the same job elsewhere.
Sinclair is a Sixties Scoop survivor and has done extensive research on the topic. She believes what’s happening with Indigenous child welfare right now is similar to what happened during the Sixties Scoop. It’s something she has coined the “Millennium Scoop.”
“Before we were vulnerable, and now that we are more politically and legally savvy, the system has responded accordingly,” she said. “We are fighting the same fight, only it’s in a different venue.”
Sinclair says the logical next step is to get the federal government to accept they are discriminating against Indigenous children and families.
“It’s about political will, if the political will isn’t there, we are never going to see equitable funding,” she said.
Her advice to Canadians is to educate themselves on the inequities of funding for First Nations people across the board.
“A recent study showed that Indigenous people get about $260 less per year for the same services as other Canadians,” she said. “So who’s getting things for free here? We sure aren’t.”