First People’s Law: Penticton Herald – The Kanesatake Health Center (KHC) has received a major boost for child and family programming following a landmark settlement between the federal government and First Nations advocacy groups.
According to executive director Teiawenhniseráhte Tomlinson, it is too early to offer specifics on how KHC will use the new funding – $3 million this year alone – but planning is underway and community partnerships are already being developed.
“We want to build culturally relevant programming from before birth to adulthood. It’s very exciting and long overdue,” said Tomlinson.
“We are restructuring our child and family services and looking to rebuild our programming to marry modern best practices with cultural and language revitalization.”
Putting the scale of the new funding in context, KHC’s entire 2018 budget totalled only around $3.7 million, according to the most recent available annual report. “The increase is very significant,” said Tomlinson.
The new funding for child and family services through the health centre comes from a historic $40-billion settlement relating to child welfare funding between the federal government and the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) and the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society (FNCFCS).
While half of the sum will be disbursed to victims of the child protection system as monetary compensation, the rest is reserved for communities affected by inadequate child welfare funding as a means to improve a broad range of related services.
The settlement was struck after the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled against the government when plaintiffs argued a systemic underfunding of child welfare for First Nations amounted to racial discrimination.
While Kanesatake does not currently have jurisdiction over child protection services, discussions for an incremental takeover are underway with Quebec, according to Tomlinson. In the meantime, the new funding from the settlement is related to other child and family service streams.
“There is a lot of solid work being done at the Kanesatake Health Center, in addition to an administrative redress which was much needed, and we will be sharing the changes actively with the community as they develop,” said Tomlinson.
He added that new money for post-majority supports, meant to help youth who have been in the child protection system transition to an independent adulthood after they turn 18, has been allocated directly to the Mohawk Council of Kanesatake (MCK).