British Columbia’s ombudsperson has sharply criticized the provincial government for failing to transfer federal funds to the caregivers of a disabled Indigenous girl.
In a report published Tuesday, Jay Chalke found the Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD) acted “unjustly” when it did not provide the Child Disability Benefit to “the Taylors” — grandparents who were caring for their eligible granddaughter, “Jesse.”
Instead, the funds went into the government’s general revenues coffer, said Chalke, and even though it became aware of the problem in 2019, the province took more than two years to remedy it.
Since 2019, the Taylors had missed out on more than $7,000, in payments of approximately $242 per month, the investigation found. The names of the family and girl were altered in the report to protect their identities.
“It’s really important that the province and the Government of Canada work together to make sure federalism works the way it’s supposed to, and that’s to benefit people like the Taylors,” Chalk told Global News, adding that other B.C. families have found themselves in a similar situation.
According to Chalke, the Taylors were receiving financial assistance from the B.C. government as kinship caregivers. That meant MCFD was considered to be “maintaining” Jesse under federal law, and while it received the federal benefit on the family’s behalf, it didn’t find a way to provide it to them.
The provincial department responsible has acknowledged its mistakes and said it did begin trying to remedy the problem as soon as it became aware, but it’s a “very complex” area.
“I want to thank the ombudsperson’s office for the report,” said MCFD Minister Mitzi Dean on Tuesday. “We’ve already implemented the recommendations and so funds have already flowed through to families, including retroactively.”
Chalke had recommended MCFD ensure caregivers of B.C. children actually receive the benefit, retroactively and moving forward, and that the ministry report its progress in addressing inequities resulting from interactions between Ottawa and the B.C. government.
He also advised MCFD to assist any “Delegated Aboriginal Agencies” in implementing the same changes, if applicable.
Dean said she didn’t know how many families had been impacted by the lack of benefit transfers.
In an interview, Indigenous child and youth advocate Cindy Blackstock said she was “sad to see” jurisdictional disputes in which governments put their own financial interests ahead of Indigenous children.
A judge recently found that the Manitoba government had also improperly withheld funds federal funds meant for children in care, she added. That case involved an estimated $334 million linked to Ottawa’s Children’s Special Allowance between 2006 and 2019.
“It’s like stealing money from babies,” said Blackstock, executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, referencing that case and the Taylors’ case. “No one knows what happened to that money, even if it was spent for kids or it was spent on something else — no one knows.”
Blackstock said the B.C. government knew the Taylors were eligible for the funds, but engaged in “baffle gab” before handing them over. She deplored the “long-term pattern” of underfunding children, particularly First Nations, Métis and Inuit children.
“You know who’s caring for the child, just send the cheque,” she urged. “We’ve seen this pattern with the federal government … where they know better, they know they’re underfunding them, they know it’s driving them into care and difficult circumstances.”
Too many reports recommended much-needed changes in the system “sit on the bookshelves,” she added.
— With files from Kylie Stanton
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