Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the invitation to appear before the committee.
You've already introduced my colleagues who work in this area. We have the complete array of ADM, director general, and director, who can help me with questions from the committee.
I welcome the opportunity to bring your members up to date on our efforts to improve first nations child and family services on-reserve.
Since the Auditor General's report of May 2008, we have been working with provinces and first nations to improve child and family services for first nations children. I can assure committee members that we recognize the seriousness of the matters raised in her report. We are committed to building healthier, stronger first nations families and are particularly concerned with the safety and well-being of first nations children.
Drawing from the report, I'd like to briefly remind the committee how the first nations child and family services program works. My department doesn't work alone, of course. Provinces have complete legislative jurisdiction over child welfare, both on and off reserve. In some cases, provinces choose to delegate the authority of their child protection ministers to first nations child welfare agencies and first nations staff.
My department provides funding to first nations, their child welfare agencies, and sometimes to the provinces to cover the costs of child welfare services on reserve, including the costs related to children brought into care. The budget for this program, as the report notes, has grown. In fact, it has more than doubled from $193 million in 1996-97 to approximately $465 million in 2007-08.
In recent times, Budget 2006 provided additional resources of $98 million over five years for the implementation of a new prevention-focused approach starting in Alberta. Budget 2008 provided an additional $115 million over five years to implement the same prevention approach in Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan. The investments in Alberta, Nova Scotia, and Saskatchewan are important, and they reach about 36% of first nations on-reserve children in care. Building on this momentum, Budget 2009 just recently added $20 million over two years to work on implementation of the prevention approach in additional provinces. We look forward to further initiatives later this year.
Through these more recent investments, a number of tripartite frameworks have been concluded. Tripartite means ourselves, the government of the province, and first nations entities. In June 2007, the first tripartite framework was reached with the Government of Alberta and treaty first nations in Alberta. Subsequently, tripartite frameworks were reached with the provinces of Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan in July 2008. For the first nations child and family services program, these agreements will lead to more clearly defined policy and accountability requirements, as the agencies develop business plans and describe how these will be implemented.
While work is under way on program renovation and a shift to the prevention approach, we are simultaneously working on another track to strengthen program management and accountability. The only way forward on both tracks is through partnership with willing partners, the provinces, and first nations--who share our goal to strengthen child welfare services.
By way of a very brief progress report, we've been able to completely update the program authorities in 2007. We've updated the reporting guide to require business plans for agencies entering into the prevention model. We've revised program reporting requirements and drafted performance indicators that we're now discussing with our partners. We have worked closely with provinces to ensure that the agencies do meet provincial legislation. We considerably increased compliance activities last year and this year.
I would like to note that the department's internal audit process requires, at my direction, mid-year and year-end follow-up reports. As Mr. Campbell will know, as he attends our audit committee as an observer, we put all internal audit findings and all Auditor General chapter findings on a reporting-back cycle.
The next follow-up report on this chapter will be presented at my audit committee, which has external members, in April, just before the one-year anniversary of the report to Parliament. I will be pleased to share the results of that follow-up report with this committee at this time, if you're interested. We will be discussing its contents with the Office of the Auditor General and my external audit committee members before finalizing it.
We want to make sure that changes we're making are meeting real needs of children in care and their families. Child welfare requires the very active involvement of all partners: families; first nations governments; child welfare agencies on and off reserve; as well as federal, provincial, and territorial governments.
In that same vein, members who were here during the last parliamentary session will know that M-296, Jean Crowder's motion on Jordan's principle was adopted by the House of Commons, in December 2007, with the support of all parties. The federal government is implementing Jordan's principle, with the provinces, so that the needs of children are addressed first.
By taking a partnership approach, INAC can support services that are provincially comparable and culturally appropriate, in keeping with the needs of communities, and putting children first.
Any further questions about what we've done and what we intend to do as we move forward would be welcome.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.