The First Nations Child and Family Caring Society says Canada is systematically failing to meet the demands of “Jordan’s Principle,” which calls for rapid funding of health and social services for children, and to determine later which level of government will have to pay.
The agency cites, among other things, longer response times to requests for information or assistance in filing a claim and, in many cases, prolonged waits for claims to be approved, while children who need care wait.
The allegations are contained in two affidavits submitted Friday to the Human Rights Tribunal as part of a non-compliance application the agency filed against the federal government for its mismanagement of “Jordan’s Principle.”
“Jordan’s Principle” states that when a child needs health, social or educational services, they should receive them from the first government contacted, with questions of final jurisdiction to be resolved thereafter.
This legal rule is named after Jordan River Anderson of the Norway House Cree Nation in Manitoba. Born in 1999 with multiple disabilities, the boy died at age five without ever leaving the hospital, as the federal and provincial governments struggled to decide who should pay for his home care .
The House of Commons then unanimously adopted a motion in 2007 to respect this “Jordan’s Principle”, but has since been accused several times of not having respected its spirit.
Cindy Blackstock, director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, said that in practice, claims made under “Jordan’s Principle” take too long to process and that the federal government takes way too long to respond to requests.
“At Jordan River Anderson’s memorial service, I promised his family that I would do everything I could to ensure that Jordan’s Principle was respected so that no other child would have to suffer like him,” M wroteme Blackstock in his 57-page affidavit to the Human Rights Tribunal. Eighteen years later, I’m still trying to keep that promise. »
Endless waits
Mme Blackstock maintains that the federal government knows that Jordan’s Principle claims are piling up, but she refuses to disclose the extent of that backlog. She said there were notably significant government delays in responding to Jordan’s Principle appeals and in reimbursing services. In some cases, delays in approving services mean children wait months to get the care they need.
For example, the Jordan’s Principle Call Center line in Canada is supposed to be available 24 hours a day, but it can take hours to get a call returned — if that call ever comes at all.
Mme Blackstock maintains that out of 25 calls made to this center by members of his organization’s staff since January 2023, they have only been put in contact with a live agent twice. When Mme Blackstock helped families with their calls, some issues were only resolved after contacting representatives via their non-public emails.
Urgent requests under Jordan’s Principle are supposed to be processed within 24 hours. But urgent requests take up to a month to be reviewed, according to the organization Independent First Nations, which represents a dozen First Nations in Ontario and Quebec.
The affidavit of Mr.me Blackstock at the Human Rights Tribunal indicates that almost half of the applications submitted by individuals from these First Nations in 2023-2024 are still being examined, as well as 10% of the files submitted in 2022-2023.
The delays also extend to reimbursement of service providers, with the Ministry of Indigenous Services having failed to keep its own promise to make these payments within 15 days, argued the Children’s and Caring Society. the First Nations family. In 2022-23, the ministry processed only 50.7% of payments within 15 business days, compared to 82.9% in 2021-22.
In the office of the Minister of Indigenous Services, Patty Hajdu, the Canadian Press was told last week that the government was carefully examining the request for non-compliance filed by the organization and that it was too early to comment on this file.
The Human Rights Tribunal is expected to hear the federal government’s Jordan’s Principle application in April or early May.
The affidavit of Mr.me Blackstock comes just months after she helped secure a $23 billion child welfare settlement with the federal government over its handling of child welfare and Jordan’s Principle.