The agency that oversees child welfare in Peguis First Nation released figures this week suggesting a system negotiated through a landmark 2023 agreement is working well, contrary to calls by the community chief to scrap the “failed” agreement due to oversight concerns.
That characterization of Peguis’ boss, Dr. Stan Bird, is something his predecessor questions.
“It’s a great system, there are no problems with it, but when it comes to that oversight and others being involved in that, then they just need to get involved,” Glenn Hudson, who was chief when the deal was signed two and a half years ago, told CBC News on Friday.
“We don’t need to rewrite the agreements, cancel them or rescind them, as Chief Bird says. We just need to collaborate.”
Last week, Bird held a press conference alongside Southern Chiefs Organization Grand Chief Jerry Daniels, calling for the once-praised agreement to be rescinded.
Bird suggested the new system is “failing us at every level” and stressed the need to improve independent oversight to help protect children and families.
In 2023, under Hudson’s leadership, Peguis became the first Indigenous community in Manitoba to sign a coordination agreement with the federal and provincial governments that transferred child welfare authority to Peguis.
Peguis Child and Family Services was formed as part of the agreement.
This was made possible by federal Bill C-92, passed in 2019, which gave Indigenous communities the authority to take charge of local child welfare.
Three days after Chief Bird’s recent comments, Peguis CFS posted a statement on its website saying the system is “working amazingly.”
The letter touts data suggesting that the vast majority of children who may have previously been subject to past colonial legislation and government CFS systems have been diverted to culturally appropriate settings with family members or loved ones.
The letter says the number of children in care has dropped by 80 per cent in the last four years; 99 percent of the 222 children sheltered in Peguis reside with their family; and the 97 percent who live off reservations are in similar family structures.
The agency also appears to have posted or updated several pages on its website this week, including a section detailing how people can file complaints with the agency’s quality assurance coordinator.
CBC News requested comment from Peguis Child and Family Services but did not receive a response before publication.
Hudson believes that if Peguis leadership has concerns, they should resolve them with Peguis CFS and the agreement should remain intact. He said some current Peguis board members don’t want to rule out the deal.
“It was a historic agreement in terms of us finally gaining control, jurisdiction and authority through the practice of our sovereignty over our children, families and our community outcomes,” Hudson said.
“Today, under this agreement, there are no outside entities that can intervene or take our children from us, unlike in years past. [with] residential schools, Sixties Scoop or even when the province had jurisdiction over CFS. “This decision-making authority now rests with Peguis Child and Family Services and the best outcomes for our children and families.”
Hudson said there were “at least a dozen community meetings” where Peguis members were able to give feedback on the change before the 2023 deal was finalized.
He is also actively seeking to have the results of the previous election, which he lost to Bird, overturned.
His appeal of a Federal Court decision, which confirmed Bird’s victory in the 2023 election, will be heard by the Federal Court of Appeal. A hearing date has not yet been determined.
A spokesperson for Manitoba Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine’s office said she and Bird are scheduled to meet next Wednesday to discuss their concerns.
Bird told CBC News on Oct. 8 that the province needs to take a closer look at the deal and wants to come out of the meeting with Fontaine with results.
He repeated that the agreement is “flawed” and suggested that community members did not have a say in the original decision.
“The coordination agreement has to be renegotiated to ensure that there are safeguards for our children and our families. There has to be oversight, there has to be accountability, there has to be quality assurance,” Bird said.
“If our children and families are denied, or a decision is made that affects them, how do they appeal that decision, how do they report their concerns and how are they addressed by an independent body? These things are not yet in place.”
Bird pointed to the Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth (MACY), led by Sherry Gott, as an example of an independent agency tasked with overseeing child welfare in Manitoba.
“If you look at what’s going on right now when there’s a complaint or an issue… MACY gets involved,” Bird said. “Right now there is no one who can do that for our children, for our families, so we need an independent, external review mechanism.”
Gott was not available for comment to CBC News.
Last month, he said there needs to be greater oversight and that children placed with relatives or loved ones in kinship arrangements are still subject to routine checks.
Like Gott, Manitoba Foster Parents Association president Jamie Pfau supports customary and kinship models of care.
He said the Peguis agreement has served as a “guiding star for self-government” and that he also shares Bird’s concerns about the need for greater oversight.
“We’ve heard concerns from foster parents… that kids in Peguis were calling MACY and saying, ‘We don’t have jurisdiction,'” Pfau said.
“We don’t know what’s been going on behind closed doors, but I imagine a chief would give a press conference about this in such a heartbreaking way that he did it to protect the children and families in his community,” Pfau said.
“I think boss Stanley Bird would have preferred to deal with this internally, he’s probably tried and for some reason it’s just not working.”
