Deal reached on Indigenous child welfare settlement

Key takeaways: 

• Details are predicted to be declared on Tuesday, sources tell the media.
• A settlement deal has been reached and signed off by all parties to resolve a long-standing conflict over the Indigenous child welfare system, the media has discovered.

Agreement reaches for the Child welfare payment: 

Sources near to the negotiations informed the media the deal was reached Friday to recompense compensation assertions related to a landmark Canadian Human Rights Tribunal leading on Indigenous child welfare settlement.

The parties to the conflict, which have the federal government on one side and the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society and the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) on the other, decided to deal until a self-imposed deadline of Dec. 31.

The sources said to the media on circumstances of confidentiality because they weren’t permitted to talk publicly.

The debate revolves around federal grants for the child welfare system on resources.

Read more: Contender underway to create carbon-capture centres in Alberta

It began in 2007 when the AFN and the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal alleging that the system was faulty and determined against First Nations kids. The tribunal gave a decision in 2016 ending that the federal government did determine against First Nations kids by underfunding the on-reserve child welfare system.

In 2019, the tribunal requested Ottawa to spend $40,000 — the most permitted under the Canadian Human Rights Act — to per child, along with their primary guardian, who was part of the on-reserve child welfare system from at least Jan. 1, 2006, to a date to be decided by the tribunal.

The tribunal also directed Ottawa to pay $40,000 to each First Nations child, along with their primary guardian, who was refused services or pushed to depart home to access services encircled by the policy known as Jordan’s Principle.

The AFN calculates some 54,000 kids and their families could prepare for settlement.