Mr. Speaker, as a result of the government's meanspirited approach toward working with Canada's first nations, the Assembly of First Nations and the First Nations Child & Family Caring Society of Canada were forced to file a human rights complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission on February 23 of this year.
On that day I rose in this House to demand real answers as to why the Conservative government has allowed the child welfare crisis to plunge to such deplorable levels leaving no other option.
Since the day that the government was sworn in, it has demonstrated paternalism and contempt toward first nations, Inuit and Métis nations in their attempts to work in a conciliatory fashion with the government.
There are particularly harsh realities facing first nations families and children across Canada which as we know is due to the culmination of years of colonialist policies and laws in this country, but I can assure members opposite that their lack of attention and respect for this issue in particular is causing conditions and issues to worsen by the day.
In the recent Senate report it revealed that, according to the United Nations standard of living index, Canadian children ranked fourth in the world. Yet, using the same mechanism first nations children ranked 63rd.
It is shameful that this country has reached a point where international aid groups are travelling to Canada to assist first nations with the growing child welfare crisis, a country which the Prime Minister has called an energy superpower and it remains one of the world's wealthiest.
The Minister of Indian Affairs often provides this House with empty rhetoric of results from the government. In my riding we are facing a crisis in which first nations children are not being provided with appropriate measures for complex medical needs, for instance. They are often forced into care in order to access services. That is an international shame.
In Manitoba alone and in other jurisdictions across the country many of them have worked on similar issues and have had similar formulas and similar solutions put out such as Jordan's principle which states that funding formulas and jurisdictional arrangements must put the needs of children and family first.
In Manitoba, both the Manitoba first nations education resource centre and the first nations child welfare agencies have not been able to get the commitment of the government neither under Indian and Northern Affairs nor under First Nations and Inuit Health Branch.
To quote the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations: “There are more than 27,000 first nations children in state care. This is a national disgrace that requires the immediate and serious attention of all governments to resolve”.
The child welfare crisis is a fact, as the Department of Indian Affairs own website states. It requires fundamental change in the funding approach of first nations child and family service agencies. This is required in order to reverse the growth rate of children coming into care and in order for the agencies to meet their mandated responsibilities.
I find it particularly disconcerting that while the minister's own department has identified the dire need to address this crisis, he completely disregards the existing child welfare situation.
What will it take for the government to realize the first nations child welfare crisis is what it is, a horrendous atrocity, and when will it start acting to address this horrible international crisis?