Grand Chief Edward John, a former NDP cabinet minister, will work with the Liberal government over the next six months to help more aboriginal children in care find permanent homes.
John, who served briefly as children’s minister under premier Ujjal Dosanjh, was on Wednesday named a senior adviser on aboriginal child-welfare issues.
The government said John will assist in developing “stronger permanency plans” to increase adoptions, guardianship or other options to give children permanent homes.
The Ministry of Children and Family Development increased the number of adoptions by 38 to 265 in 2014-15, but still fell short of its stated goal of 300.
John will work with Children’s Minister Stephanie Cadieux and her deputy to engage aboriginal leaders in talks about reducing the number of children in care, the government said. He also may work on projects dealing with early childhood development.
“There’s an inordinate number of aboriginal children in care,” John said in an interview. “How to address it and how to reduce the numbers of children in care — that’s where I come in.”
John said adoption is just one of the issues he will examine. He noted that poverty is a key factor behind aboriginal children ending up in costly foster care.
If that money could be redirected to supporting families, it could go a long way to reversing the trend, he said.
He also noted that the federal government provides prevention supports to families in other provinces, and he’ll be pressing to extend that program into B.C.
Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, B.C.’s independent child watchdog, said the Ministry of Children and Family Development desperately needs leadership on aboriginal issues.
“They’ve shown that they’re woefully inadequate to understand these issues at the senior executive level or to lead on these issues,” she said. “So the admission today by the premier and the minister that they need to bring Grand Chief John in, I think really confirms what I’ve pointing out for some time, which is that they are just not equipped to address these issues and the issues have mounted.”
Turpel-Lafond expressed hope that John will be able to highlight the erosion in the level of service provided to aboriginal children and their families.
“Many of those programs have disappeared and the numbers of children and families served has declined,” she said. “So aboriginal children and families today continue to be without the support that they need for the magnitude of issues that they face.”
The number of aboriginal children in care has remained relatively stable at about 4,400. But the proportion of aboriginal children in the system has risen as the ministry has been more successful at reducing the number of non-aboriginal children in care.
The government now says that 55 per cent of children living out of their parental home in B.C. are aboriginal. Aboriginal children account for eight per cent of the total child population in the province.
Cadieux issued a statement Wednesday calling John a “natural fit” to continue the ministry’s work finding permanent homes for children.
“We’ve seen improvements in this area,” she said. “Permanency rates and adoptions are going up even as the number of aboriginal kids coming into care is beginning to decline. … However, things just aren’t moving fast enough. We need to do better at keeping pace with trends in the non-aboriginal population.”
She noted that John has been working with B.C.’s First Nations communities for years, and “has the relationships, the knowledge and the respect within those communities to inspire action and meaningful change.”
John will submit monthly progress reports to Cadieux until his contract expires March 31, 2016.
