Study on high rates of CFS involvement with First Nations parents renews calls for reform

Decades of Manitoba population data revealed First Nations birthing parents were nearly four times more likely to have an open file with Child and Family Services than non-First Nations parents—a finding researchers say reinforces concerns about the agency’s scope and role in ongoing health inequities.

The data was published in a new joint study by the University of Manitoba and the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC).

Researchers compiled tracking data of more than 13,000 First Nations birthing parents and more than 106,700 non-First Nations birthing parents who had their first child between 1998 and 2019. The study analyzed hospital birth records, employment and assistance case reports, and the Canadian Census, among other data.

Other key findings - 27 per cent of all First Nations birthing parents experienced the removal of one or more of their children, which is nearly six times higher than non-First Nations parents.

Ten per cent of First Nations parents had their parental rights terminated with one or more of their children – a rate that is more than five times higher than non-First Nations parents.

“We expect to see inequities between First Nations and non-First Nations parents, but these are incredibly high numbers showing a wider scale of intervention by the system and disruption than previously published data,” study lead Kathleen Kenny said in an interview with CTV News Winnipeg.

The study’s authors made several recommendations, including maintaining the full government social assistance and welfare parental benefit, public housing for parents and children after CFS involvement, and investments in First Nations-led preventative supports.

Calls to transfer child welfare services to First Nations jurisdiction

AMC Grand Chief Kyra Wilson said the study’s findings were no surprise.

“The system is set up to remove the children from their caregivers, no questions asked, and there’s something wrong with that,” she said.

“We have been dealing with this since the creation of the residential school system and we’re just calling it something different today.”

The Grand Chief called on the province to follow through on the jurisdictional transfer of child welfare services to First Nations—an initiative Manitoba Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine said the government is leaning into.

Meanwhile, Fontaine said the study’s recommendations are already being used.

“All of those recommendations, we’re doing and have been doing and a lot more,” she said.

Fontaine maintained it has been a priority of the Kinew government to keep families together, citing changes to the CFS Act passed in October that allow agencies to place kids in care with extended family or within their communities.

She acknowledged there’s been a slow uptake, so the province is working to make sure agencies and the public understand the new legislation and how to use it.

“It’s really about decolonizing the way that we do child welfare while we still have this provincial system and while we’re walking the path towards jurisdiction.”

- With files from CTV’s Scott Andersson