Thank you, Mr. Chair and members, for inviting me to appear before your committee.
I welcome the opportunity to bring your members up to date on our continuing efforts to improve First Nations Child and Family Services on-reserve.
Since the Auditor General's report of May 2008, we have been working very closely with the provinces and first nations to improve child and family services for first nations children normally resident on reserve. I wish to assure the committee that we recognize the seriousness of the matters raised in the Auditor General's report.
I'd like to talk briefly about how the first nations child and family service program works. We do not work alone. Provinces have jurisdiction over child welfare, both on and off reserve, and in some cases, the provinces have delegated their authorities to first nations child welfare agencies and first nations staff. This explains why we've been focusing a lot of our attention on being provincially comparable and have been working with provinces and first nations agencies so that the agencies can adequately meet provincial legislation and standards while meeting the requirements of our funding agreements.
As well, the department works with first nations providing funding to first nations, their child welfare agencies and the provinces to cover the operating costs of culturally appropriate child welfare services on-reserve including the reimbursement of maintenance costs related to children brought into care.
The budget has doubled from more than $193 million in 1996-97 to roughly $523 million in 2008-09. Beginning in budget 2005, a roughly 8.5% increase in the operations formula was committed. As well, there was a commitment of roughly $1 million for agency self-evaluation and an additional $15 million to pay for rising maintenance expenditures. This was an additional investment totalling roughly $25 million.
The first nations child and family services program is under renovation and is therefore currently in transition as we move towards what we call an enhanced prevention-focused model. This is a model that focuses on prevention rather than on an out-of-home care bias. Budget 2006 marked the beginning of this transition with a financial commitment, starting in Alberta, of incremental funds of $98 million over five years.
The next step came in budget 2008, in which an additional $115 million was provided over five years to the provinces of Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan, along with first nations agencies, to implement the new model. Most recently, Canada's economic action plan has announced a further $20 million over two years to additional jurisdictions to join in this model.
To put it in perspective, this year alone $49.5 million in incremental funding will flow to the first nations child and family services agencies in five jurisdictions. Our commitment will increase to a total of $61 million annually by 2011, and we have more provinces to work in.
I would say that under this model, the Government of Canada is committed to providing the necessary funding for first nations child welfare, which will be provincially comparable, to support early intervention and prevention-specific services that work to reduce the number of apprehensions. The model has two components. The first is the development of tripartite accountability frameworks. This involves the federal government, the provinces, and the first nations agencies or organizations. This is where we develop common goals, visions, and performance measurement standards and where we speak to issues such as culturally appropriate services and provincial comparability.
The second component involves working directly with first nations child welfare practitioners and provincial officials in developing a funding model that is specific and comparable to the particular province we are working with and meets the needs identified by workers at the front line.
While work is under way on this renovation and shift to the enhanced prevention model, the other track we're working on is program management. In the Auditor General's report, she's raised issues in both areas.
I'm just going to briefly sum up in one minute, if I may.