Affidavit of Michael Bear - Phoenix Sinclair Inquiry

initiatives promote workload relief money which assists in bringing the
workload down to 1 to 20 ratio whereas the lack of similar federal money
keeps it at the 1 to 30 ratio. Since workers carry a mix of federal and
provincial cases it would be unfair to segregate the workload and therefore
the impact of the workload relief is lost — 1 to 25 ratio.
[154] Also part of the initiatives is a plan called Differential Responses or
Preventive Dollars which is a prevention focused approach for early
intervention to try and keep kids out of the child welfare system, if possible.
Next year 17 million dollars will go into this fund. Obviously the
government's Change for Children initiative and its 45 million new dollars
can provide a significant impact on the child welfare system and the
problems revealed.
[155] Generally the Southeast Child and Family Service's position was that
the province was doing their part and a corresponding influx of money by
the federal government would have a tremendous positive impact on the
children of Manitoba.
[156] Although the amount of money is obviously important but just as
important is the flexible use of the money being given in order that creative
ways can be used and developed rather than just maintaining the expensive
not very successful status quo.
[157] For example, the creation in the community of support — economic,
social, cultural, problem-solving, in order to improve the community and its
families so that removal of the child from the community is the last resort.
Funding rights limit the responses available. Child protection should not
equate with child removal simply because of funding.
[158] In her evidence Ms Flette commented on issues raised in the Auditor's
Report — pre-AJI — having to do with plans not being updated, reviews not
being documented and outcomes not being measured. It should be noted
that these problems are associated with all agencies and largely workload
related. Resources need to be commensurate with the standards to be met.
Strides have been made, in her view, with respect to CFSIS, hotel stay
reductions, worker qualifications, corrective action plans and accounting.
[159] The most important point raised, in my view, is the concession that
the better the record-keeping and file management the easier for the workers
involved with care and for supervisory review to make sure that Tracia was
getting the services she needed. Secondly, it was again emphasized that
there is no capacity to review each and every file so the need for a flagging
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