A B.C. organization is applauding the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal’s ruling ordering the federal government to better fund First Nations child welfare services.
Two years ago, the Canadian government was found guilty of discriminating against First Nations child welfare services, but now the tribunal has ruled not enough has been done to remedy that.
The federal government has now been forced to reimburse those underfunded agencies.
Mary Teege, with Carrier Sekani Family Services, says the money will allow them to focus on prevention.
“So we’re looking at it in a different way: how do we prevent the children from being removed? And so right now the system is based on intervention, is based on keeping children in care, there’s funding for that, but nothing to prevent children from going into care, providing the families with the support,” she said.
She also calls the decision a landmark ruling.
“Canada said they didn’t need to change their policies, or even their treasure board guidelines to fix the discrimination, but in this ruling it states that yes, public policy and funding have to be changed to accommodate the remedies as set out in the tribunal ruling.”
The decision is retroactive to Jan. 2016, when the federal government was initially found guilty.