On the treeless Tundra of Nunavut tradition Stands Tall a place where Hunters still venture out into the bay and a majority of people speak intitute this is the capital eal a city yes but there are no traffic lights no fences around homes so you can imagine the culture
Shock when a child from here is moved thousands of kilometers away to a group home or foster home in the South it was horrible such is the story of halap tulak a child from a struggling family who then struggled herself we were huffing gas and we were smoking
Cigarettes she was sent to Ontario in hopes of finding support by 15 she was living in a private group home outside of Ottawa but it was not the answer it’s very lonely like I couldn’t I couldn’t really talk to anybody or like go have something to eat whenever I wanted I
Couldn’t go out it was very restrictive everything sticks with you I I remember every child for those placing children in the South it was also agonizing Connie McIntosh and Cassandra yantha are former supervisors with nuno’s Department of Family Services sending a child outside of Nuno is not the first response absolutely not
Absolutely not but because of the limited resources including that of foster homes you’re often forced into a situation of at a territory placement and Ontario group homes are ready and waiting within Nunavut options are incredibly scarce there’s only three group homes in the entire territory and a housing crisis means families and
Foster parents may not have room for one more on interial group homes are well aware of this Gap in in services and resources and and essentially our vultures they know that the service that they’re offering is needed and it’s needed now so they can charge anything and the rates were high indeed Global
News obtained and analyzed roughly 8,000 pages of contracts between the government of nunut and child welfare companies outside the territory and found that from 2019 to 2021 nunut paid on average 53% more per day for a child to live in an Ontario group home compared to what Children’s Aid
Societies in Ontario paid they know exactly what they’re doing they are not a nonprofit working towards the collective well-being of indigenous Children and Youth 84 Children and Youth from nunut were living in outof territory placements including Foster and group homes as of January 2024 some moved because of medical needs
Requiring Specialized Care others because they didn’t have a safe home or their personal struggles meant they needed a new one over four years the government of nunut awarded $41 million to residential care companies in the South nearly 26 million of that in Ontario they would call up and go we got
Like three empty beds well it’s what do you expect me to do go out and apprehend and three kids to send them to you hold on a group home would call you essentially soliciting that they needed you to fill their beds yes doesn’t that feels slimy definitely feels slimy some
Former group home workers say companies were motivated to land those contracts we have agreed to protect their identities because they fear reprisal did you feel like they were actively trying to Target or recruit indigenous youth 150% absolutely why it’s more money you get get a pum that is double if not
Triple the pum you would get from a youth in Ontario some companies defend what they charged Nuno saying Ontario’s rates are outdated and not reflective of actual operational costs where is the money going where do you think the money is going I would love to see some uh you
Know Financial audits being done Karen Baker Anderson has been an advocate for Inu youth for 30 years I think the money might be going into operators pockets and I think they’re clear they’re in a business the business happens to be that they’re operating group homes what children and teens received for those
Contracts varied greatly according to former workers some companies made efforts to offer culture therapy and warmth others were punitive and cold it would not be uncommon for a child or youth to have an empty room and that was the consequence to their behavior it happened to halap when she says the
Group homes a suspected she might hurt herself my stuff were out of my room for a good 2 3 days like you don’t strip a child’s room and just throw a mattress on the floor you saw bare rooms with just mattresses on it yeah they’re not
In prison but did it seem like a prison absolutely yeah they say they reported their concerns but nothing changed among the most expensive contracts those with a company called Alliance Youth Services one contract for a single youth reached over $400,000 a year these former Alliance workers say
Youth were worse off than when they arrived do you think the kids who are in care received services that were commensurate with the amount of money paid no absolutely not are they getting any access to therapy no Alliance runs what are called staff Model Homes there’s only one youth per home which is
Why it says its expenses are higher It also says the youth’s needs can be challenging having been unsuccessful in other placements and often require two to1 Staffing they’re moving so far away from their home to get what I think what they were supposed to be getting is help
With behavioral issues and a higher education and more structure who was giving them that help if they weren’t getting any therapy or treatment good question I’m not sure nobody was getting help Alliance told Global News it has a successful track record of helping youth as well as successful Audits and reviews
By the ministry for 19 years it says it does offer therapy as well as Recreation with higher than typical budgets and personalized plans to connect youth with culture it defends there is no targeting and no difference in fees based on a resident’s background their doors should have been closed long
Ago between 2019 and 2022 the government of Nunavut paid Alliance Youth Services more than $2 million for youth to live in Alliance staff model and Foster homes and yet basic bills went unpaid utilities water rent Staffing many times like you know you’re calling and begging the propane company
To just go deliver a tank of propane to keep the house heated Alliance says all bills have been settled and oversight it claims only happened at vacant homes it also forwarded to Global News over 40 emails from workers all unverified which spoke of excellent and supportive care with cultural activities for indigenous
Youth across many companies what Youth and workers say was lost was culture I really truly think they thought well if we go buy a picture from somewhere of a polar bear and we put a Nuna flag on the wall maybe we’ll label a few things in a
Nute and we say there we go we’ve now offered a culturally safe space for this child and it’s not safe Baker Anderson used to lead an Inu organization in Ottawa which supports families including teens in group homes I think what people are taken back by is how strong the Inu
Culture is that people are living their culture in the Arctic every day and I think we’ve looked to the South as a solution but the South hasn’t known how to be a solution there was an expectation in the contracts with the government of nunut that companies would provide an environment that was culturally
Sensitive do you remember what sort of promises of quality of care the youth you place were going to get absolutely so loving and nurturing environment safe spaces cultural continuity therapeutic resources and the list goes on and on and did the kids and teens get that no some former workers say it was a
Facade it was almost like holy crap we’re starting to get kids is from n of it it’s a lot of money coming in we got to make sure that the programming looks good so you could say to the social worker this is our programming calendar we’ll have a culture night and culture
Night could be Italian culture night for the indigenous youth could be Italian night it could be Italian night it could be Mexican night it could be so any culture they would just yell at them speaking English they swear at these kids all the time for speaking in ntk yes
The absence of anything familiar made life for some youth feel impossible and even though nunut funded family visits or trips home it wasn’t enough I would get sometimes three four phone calls a day from one kid when am I coming home that was the question that
They always ask when am I coming home what does that feel like it it it feels absolutely horrible especially when when you don’t have an answer if this was happening anywhere else as Canadians we would say no way we would we would raise money we would we
Would stand up and and protest and yet this is happening in our own country to our first people who we’ve already done so much harm to and we’re doing it again and we’re doing it Again welcome to the legislative assembly of nvot wow this is the chamber inside the walls of the most powerful political house in nunut this is Glacier polished Stone legislators as well as officials at the Department of Family Services say they had no idea of what we uncovered that Nunavut was paying on
Average 53% more per day for a child to live in an Ontario group home compared to what agencies in that Province spent it’s mind-blowing I cannot believe that Adam arak lightstone is an MLA for ealo that’s blatant racism that is current day colonialism in practice equally alarming he says the conditions some
Youths were living in according to former workers I’m just completely and utterly shocked actually and if those services are inadequate um especially when it comes to ensuring the safety of those children in care um I am very concerned over that some group home companies defend they offered quality
Care and only charged more than Ontario because they say the province’s rates are outdated where is the accountability Jane Bates is nuno’s independent representative for Children and Youth so what part of town are we in now this is all considered this is kind of downtown the responsibility lies on
The government of nunut and the department of family services to ensure that if they’re placing children outside the territory that the care the services and the support that they’re receiving far exceeds what they would have received had they remained in Nuno Nuno does have six liaison workers based in Alberta Manitoba and Ontario
Who check in on kids and homes this is grenell place kind of the Frontline um child welfare office but bate says children are supposed to be supervised by trained social workers from local Children’s Aid societies so every child that is sitting in an out of territory placement should have an interprovincial
Agreement in place and courtesy supervision is that happening no so you’re saying the oversight that’s meant to be there isn’t always happening that’s correct yes it’s a crisis we’ve uh effectively failed and we we’re here to admit that we have not done the best that we could last September Jonathan Ellsworth a
Newly appointed Deputy minister of Family Services was summoned before a legislative committee how many children have been sent out since 1999 how many of them are still out of territory thank you for the question sir the department was answering to a scathing review of the child welfare system conducted by the
Federal auditor general it was the third time the AG has called for reform I am cognizantly aware that the department did not do enough making sure that the safety and wellbeing of the children who were placed out of territory was at a place that was above and exceeds
Standard the audit also found that within Nuno government workers did not always respond to reports of suspected harm did not complete investigations for child protection and did not have reliable data it’s unacceptable it really makes me sick to my stomach as a as a person and as a father that we
Could uh treat these kinds of things which with such callousness you’ve worked in Ontario as well as the north how different is the Child Welfare landscape here you’re dealing with a situation where the basics of Life are not being provided There’s issues with housing there’s issues with food insecurity poverty uh homelessness all
Of those issues and the child sexual abuse rates are incredibly high in fact the levels of child poverty and family violence in Nuno are the highest in the country you were seeing that hurt on the front line yeah Laura piaia Churchill used to work at an Inu Center for
Victims of child abuse I think the most important thing is working on the parents healing so that they can be the best person for their children rather than coming up with Band-Aid Solutions and moving kids from home to home and even away from the territory the children in Nuno have to
Leave the territory often because of family wounds formed years ago from the 1940s to 7s Inu were literally numbered and tagged by the federal government in what was called the Eskimo ID system in the ‘ 50s families were relocated by the government that same decade Federal day schools and hostels open for Children today is a very heavy day and while at the national day of Truth and Reconciliation they speak of historical wrongs it’s really important that we spend time talking about the truth of how children were taken away from our families The Echoes reverberate in the child welfare system today
Do you have any concern that once a child heads out that they’re forgotten yes I am fearful that very few of these children actually make it back home and those that do most likely have lost a significant amount of their culture and their language over the years and won’t come back the same
Person as they’d left the Department of Family Services has pledged to fix its child welfare system create a new strategic plan expand supports within Nuno including the number of group homes and check in on youth who are living out of territory every month what does Nuno need today on
Its path to Healing Nuno needs addictions treatment centers nunut needs more youth support centers nunut needs housing the first Addiction Center in the territory is expected to open next year designed to also address the trauma of colonization but healing generations of hurt and addressing years of government failings will not happen
Quickly and so young people may continue to be sent south to private group homes with open doors no child should be profited off of when these are the children that come from at risk homes I really hope that the government of nlet will bring them Home
Within the child-welfare system, a significant number of children in Nunavut that needed new home had to leave the territory to find one.
They were moved to Alberta and Manitoba – but most end up in Ontario. A Global News investigation uncovers the high rates some companies are charging to care for those youth.
Carolyn Jarvis reports.
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