The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations is calling for changes to Saskatchewan’s child welfare system.
FSIN Chief Bobby Cameron says a representative advisory committee which would oversee provincial child welfare services would help improve the current system.
“There has to be a committee comprised of First Nations people and provincial people,” Cameron said at a news conference Tuesday in Saskatoon. “We have to form a partnership that will reflect the needs of First Nations people.”
A 2017 report by Saskatchewan’s children and youth advocate says approximately 5,250 children were in government care compared to 4,500 in 2013.
Tim Korol, a former assistant deputy minister in Saskatchewan social services, adds enough studies have been done on the provincial child welfare system and now it’s time for action.
“We have over 30 years of report after review after inquiry,” he says. “We have, as a former child advocate put it, a foster care system mired in chronic crisis.”
The FSIN will be holding an assembly on child welfare reform Wednesday on the Whitecap Dakota First Nation.
(PHOTO: Left to right, former Saskatchewan social services assistant deputy minister Tim Korol, Indigenous child welfare activist Chris Martell, FSIN Vice-Chief David Pratt and FSIN Chief Bobby Cameron. Photo by Brendan Mayer.)