Fewer kids in care: Manitoba government looking to reform child-welfare system
WINNIPEG — The Manitoba government is promising to reduce the fast-rising and overwhelmingly Indigenous number of kids in provincial care and to help families reunite sooner.
Families Minister Scott Fielding announced a package of measures Thursday aimed at addressing criticism raised by many First Nations leaders and by a 2013 public inquiry report that said the child-welfare system needs an overhaul.
The definitions and reasons for taking children from their families are to be clarified and are likely to be narrowed, Fielding said. Assessments of seized kids, which can currently take months, are to be sped up.
“Other jurisdictions have done some work in terms of that process — clarification of when a child is taken into care. We want to make sure that we’re at the same level of other provinces.”