Changes now in effect to allow more kids in Manitoba to be kept in care of families

Changes to Manitoba’s child welfare system aimed at keeping more families together are now in effect.

The province has put in place a system that will allow kids to stay out of child welfare by being placed with extended relatives or people within their home community.

More than 80 per cent of kids in care in Manitoba are Indigenous, and Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine says the changes will reduce the number of Indigenous children in the system.

The province is also putting up $10 million for Indigenous agencies to support families and community members who can care for a child through programs called kinship care and customary care agreements.

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The changes were outlined in a law passed by the former Progressive Conservative government last year, and the current NDP government says the changes took effect Oct. 1.

Fontaine says the changes address recommendations from the national Truth and Reconciliation Commission to reduce the number of Indigenous children in care and affirm the right of Indigenous governments to establish and maintain their own child welfare agencies.

“If a child comes in, (an) agency now has the legislative tools to be able to look at grandma, auntie … folks that are in community, that are in the same cultural group that can take this child,” Fontaine said Friday.

“And more importantly, there are financial supports now for these agreements.”

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