Image: Kent Simmonds / CFJC Today

By Dylana Kneeshaw

CHILD AND YOUTH WELFARE

Child welfare agreement between Simpcw and province marks a jurisdictional milestone

Apr 12, 2022 | 4:14 PM

KAMLOOPS — This week, a historic document was signed at the Simpcw First Nation — Tcwesétmentem, the first child welfare agreement of its kind in the province.

“I’m just very, very proud for our community,” says Kúkpi7 (Chief) Shelly Loring. “I’m very proud for our people and I am proud of the people who worked so diligently and hard on this.”

Tcwesétmentem means ‘walking together’, and is more than two years in the making. It will help govern the protection, planning and placement of Simpcw children and youth who are in contact with the child welfare system. Ensuring the band and ministry work together on care-plans for youth — without uprooting a child from their home culture and community.

It took a lot of work from both Simpcw and the Ministry of Child and Family Development (MCFD) to come to the agreement.

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“As far as the intense negotiations, I believe that the last couple of weeks have been very intense just with our discussions,” says Loring. When speaking at Tuesday’s (Apr. 12) signing event, Simpcw’s chief described the lengthy process using a story as a metaphor, which eventually described how the MCFD and Simpcw were able to get their agreement completed.

“And it’s probably one of the best, I believe, agreements that we have in place.”

Minister Mitzi Dean says it will start to change how child services are delivered — aiming to make sure Simpcw youth who need an alternative care or living situation are not displaced from their community.

“This agreement underlines how we’ll be working together with Simpcw community and with the ministry to make sure that Simpcw children and youth are able to stay connected to family and community and culture.”

Loring and band councillors spoke of how when children and youth are removed from home communities, they lose important connections to their culture, land and identity.

“Our next step after this will be the work of starting to actually negotiate our own jurisdiction agreement that will give us the authority to have, as I said, those three P’s,” explains Loring, “We would have that protection, that planning, and we would have that placement ideally within our own community or within their own family units.”

The province is hoping the document will also serve as a guide for other nations who want to begin forming their own child welfare agreements.

“And we are working with nations under the federal act as well to be able to create coordination agreements with them so that they can actually exercise jurisdiction,” notes Dean.

Kúkpi7 Loring reiterates that this is a living document, and can be reviewed and revised as needed. It’s also an interim measures, marking another step towards the band implementing their inherent jurisdiction.