Saskatoon Tribal Council Chief Felix Thomas. Photo courtesy http://www.sktc.sk.ca/
Saskatchewan’s children’s advocate is weighing in on the dispute between the Ministry of Social Services and the Saskatoon Tribal Council over jurisdiction and reporting procedures for children under care.
The Saskatoon Tribal Council is refusing to allow Social Services into its offices as it attempts to access STC Child and Family Service’s on-reserve child welfare files, Chief Felix Thomas confirmed on Wednesday. Social Services will need to go another route to access those files, and Social Services Minister Donna Harpauer previously said they will go through the courts.
This is related to the province taking over responsibility for STC’s on-reserve child welfare cases, due to what the province calls a failure by STC to provide reports that allow Social Services to ensure the well-being of children on reserve.
Child advocate Bob Pringle said the STC is compromising his ability to do his job, particularly as he looks for information on two children who died within the past year.
“There have been children who have died under their service. Maybe they weren’t in care but they died under their service and that is indisputable. And I want access to see what went wrong, and that access isn’t forthcoming,” he said.
“The Saskatoon Tribal Council has been less than cooperative on that front. And that isn’t acceptable from my point of view. And I believe there is a lack of transparency and a lack of accountability.”
Pringle said he fully intends to investigate the deaths.
Thomas stated it wasn’t the children themselves, but their parents who received services. He has a very different perspective from Pringle.
“I do know that we worked with the child advocate office, they were in our office. We agreed that we would give them whatever information we had and we’ve done that so far,” Thomas said.
However, it’s not only the province weighing in here because Pringle’s role is non-partisan by its nature.
Felix repeatedly referred to a bilateral accord with the province that dates back to 1996 as the standard STC follows in reporting to the province. He likened it to treaties several times.
Thomas says the province has no authority over the 67 children currently in their care, because on-reserve issues are between the federal government and First Nations.
“We know where (the children) are, how they are and work with both the family and the community to ensure their care. We will continue to operate as we are the legal authority and have the confidence of our people, our leaders and our families to do so,” he said in a teleconference on Wednesday afternoon.
Pringle said First Nations family service agencies have a duty to fulfill regulations for child care as set out by Social Services, adding that Thomas is “well aware” of his concerns about on-reserve investigations.
The province has said the federal government is ending funding to STC for these services, but Thomas says as far as he knows INAC is still committed.
Federally, Thomas said any criticism they’ve received was related to administrative items.