Manitoba should focus more on prevention to reduce kids in child welfare: report

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The document also calls for a stricter definition of when children need to be taken from their families — for their own safety and protection, but not if the family is struggling with poverty, poor housing or addiction.

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“The (law) should be revised to emphasize the need of a family to receive assistance when there is no immediate safety threat necessitating child protection services, without the implication or finding that the parent has caused their child to be in need of protection,” the report states.

“The decision to separate a child from her or his parents must be specific to the urgent safety of the child and a child should not be separated due to poverty concerns or neglect that is cause by socio-economic conditions.”

The committee, which includes representatives from First Nations and Metis groups, was formed last December after the Tory government announced plans to reduce the number of kids in care.

Manitoba has roughly 11,000 kids in government care, the highest per-capita rate in Canada. About 90 per cent of the kids in care are Indigenous.

The recommendations appear to dovetail with changes announced by the government last fall — more block funding to agencies to support families before they reach a crisis point, and more customary care which gives First Nations children more options to remain in their home communities.

Liberal legislature member Jon Gerrard, who has long criticized the province’s high newborn apprehension rates, welcomed the report and urged the government to enact the recommendations.

Documents obtained by the Liberals under the province’s freedom of information act show more than 330 kids under the age of one month have been seized in each of the last three years.

“We need to drop that number by at least half, and hopefully better than that,” Gerrard said.

Steve Lambert, The Canadian Press