The provincial government is being accused of continuing to claw back federal funds intended to help Métis children in care just a month after agreeing to pay a half-billion-dollar settlement in compensation for doing the same thing to all children in care for more than a decade.
The Métis Child and Family Services Authority, Métis Child, Family and Community Services Agency, Michif CFS and Rene Lafontaine — a Métis citizen who, as a child, was under the care of Métis CFCS — are suing the province for compensatory damages of at least $31.9 million in benefits clawed away from children in their care since 2019, as well as damages for loss of use and lost opportunity because the money wasn’t used for their benefit.
They are also seeking unspecified monetary damages — claiming the province breached the Charter rights of the children under care — and $10 million in punitive and exemplary damages.
As well, they want the courts to register the lawsuit as a class action.
“Manitoba has knowingly and deliberately deprived some of the most vulnerable and marginalized children in Manitoba of their statutorily conferred (Child Special Allowance) Benefits which has resulted in them being denied the basic necessities of life,” says the statement of claim filed in Manitoba Court of King’s Bench last week.
“Manitoba has robbed (the children under care) of the opportunities and experiences that they would have otherwise had if… (benefits had been) used for their intended statutory purpose. Manitoba’s conduct warrants the court’s condemnation through a significant award of punitive and/or exemplary damages both as an expression of the court’s reprimand and to discourage similar conduct.”
Lawyers for the court action, as well as the Manitoba Métis Federation, could not be reached for comment.
A provincial spokesman said the province is reviewing the statement of claim, but cannot comment further because the matter is before the courts.
The Métis CFS was created in 2003 and is an affiliate of the MMF, which appoints its board of directors. The Métis CFS oversees both Métis CFCS and Michif CFS.
The lawsuit says the funding model for Métis agencies before April 1, 2019, saw the province provide them with maintenance funding for the children in their care, which covered the cost of housing, food, clothing, education and extra-curricular activities, as well as operational funding to run the agencies.
The agencies themselves did not then, or now, receive any operational funding from the federal government.
Before 2019, the funding was paid when Métis agencies billed the province based on the number of children in their care.
The lawsuit says the province set the maintenance rates in 2012, and they have not changed since.
The Métis agencies also apply, on behalf of every child, for federal CSA benefits, which are supposed to be over and above what the province pays, to be “applied exclusively toward the care, maintenance, education, training or advancement of the child in respect of whom it is paid.”
But, in what the lawsuit says was “unlawful,” the province put in place a policy, on Jan. 1, 2005, demanding all CFS agencies that received the CSA to remit it to the province or face clawbacks from their operational funding.
That policy, which was in place until March 31, 2019, caused agencies either to transfer the CSA to the province or use it to cover the loss in operational funding.
The Métis agencies, as well as other Indigenous CFS agencies, finally launched court action to challenge the province’s 2005 policy in April 2018, but, in response, the province amended legislation to retroactively put in place legislative authority over the policy in an effort to stop any lawsuits.
A Court of King’s Bench justice ruled in 2022 that the province’s policy was unconstitutional and, last June, Manitoba entered into settlement agreements that ultimately resulted in last month’s $530-million settlement to children in care from 2005 to 2019.
At the time, Premier Wab Kinew said “we’re righting a historic wrong here,” and said the money would allow the children to pay “to go to school, put a down payment on a home or to just help you keep your head above water during this time of inflation and interest rates.”
But the lawsuit claims that under the province’s current funding model in place since 2019, where the province pays a block “single envelope” amount each year, the province is still clawing back about $5.3 million worth of CSA benefits annually for a total of $31.9 million, to date.
“Manitoba erroneously believes that its child welfare funding obligations should be defrayed by the CSA Benefit,” the lawsuit says.
“CSA Benefits are intended to supplement and top-up funding provided by the province, not supplant, replace or defray the province’s funding obligations.”
The court action hasn’t been proven in court and no statement of defence has been filed.
kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca
Kevin Rollason
Reporter
Kevin Rollason is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He graduated from Western University with a Masters of Journalism in 1985 and worked at the Winnipeg Sun until 1988, when he joined the Free Press. He has served as the Free Press’s city hall and law courts reporter and has won several awards, including a National Newspaper Award. Read more about Kevin.
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