Indigenous Services Minister Jane Philpott vowed this week to spend more money for First Nations child welfare in budget 2018. "We see that it's clearly not working because of the severe over-representation [of First Nations children in the child welfare system] that has been well-documented." Budget 2016 provided some $635 million over five years in new funding for child welfare services, but most of that money is back-loaded to 2019, and 2020, a year after the next scheduled election. Indigenous-Crown Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett, who, until August 2017, oversaw the child welfare system, was reluctant to invest more money into a broken system in desperate need of reform. Advocates believe this funding formula has led to the shocking number of First Nations children seized by agencies.

Source: CBC News January 25, 2018 09:56 UTC