Honouring the Truth Reconciling for the Future

The legacy • 189many, many years, because sometimes I didn’t want to resist it, I just…. But Iknew it was very bad. 22Sometimes, child-welfare placements end in tragedy. Where there are province-specificstatistics available, the findings suggest that in some parts of the country,Aboriginal children who come into contact with child-welfare authorities are significantlymore likely to die.Research in Alberta indicated that 78% of children who have died in foster carebetween 1999 and mid-2013 were Aboriginal. 23 Since Aboriginal children, a minorityof the overall population, represent 59% of children in care in Alberta, the rate ofAboriginal child deaths in care is even more disproportionate than the apprehensionrate. Of the seventy-four recorded deaths of Aboriginal children in care, thirteen weredue to accidents, twelve children committed suicide, and ten children were the victimsof homicide. 24 Forty-five of these Aboriginal children died while in the care of aprovincial child-welfare agency, and twenty-nine died in the care of an on-reserveFirst Nations child and family service agency.Delivery of child-welfare servicesThere are over 300 child-welfare agencies in Canada operating under provincialand territorial jurisdiction. In addition, Canada provides funding to over 100 agenciesdelivering child and family services to First Nations families under the framework ofprovincial legislation. 25 In 2010–11, there were 9,241 First Nations children outside theparental home and in the care of these First Nations child and family service agencies,representing 5.5% of on-reserve children. 26 A few larger Canadian cities (suchas Toronto and Vancouver) also have Aboriginal child and family service agencies. 27In Manitoba, there is also an agency serving Métis families. There are, however, noAboriginally controlled agencies in the three northern territories; child-welfare servicesto Aboriginal families there are provided through the same government agenciesthat serve all children. In two out of the three territories, Aboriginal people make up amajority of the members in their legislatures and cabinets.Although the federal government acknowledges its responsibility for child-welfareservices to First Nations families, Métis communities are not well served. TheCommission believes that adequately funded, Métis-specific, child and family servicesmust be made available to Métis children and families. The Government of Canadashould not let unresolved jurisdictional disputes stand in the way of the acceptance ofsuch responsibilities. Similarly, the Commission believes the Government of Canadashould ensure the development of adequately resourced Inuit child-welfare servicesin the North and in urban centres such as Ottawa and Montreal that have a significantInuit population.