Manitoba foster parents raise concerns over state of child welfare in the province

As part of an ongoing effort to understand the full scope of issues facing foster parents in Manitoba, CityNews has reviewed dozens of submissions from foster families across the province, and their experiences detail major gaps within the system.

In more than 100 submissions collected by the Manitoba Foster Parent Association and provided to CityNews, the majority of concerns centered around the dire need for increased funding, resources, and systemic support; both for children in care and the foster parents who open their hearts and homes to support them.

“We are all almost drowning and how can you raise children to thrive in that environment,” asked Jamie Pfau, president of the Manitoba Foster Parent Association.

In the submissions, parents detailed their challenges. 

“These children cannot wait any longer for change, underfunding has created a crisis where children’s needs are not being met, and foster parents are stretched thin,” wrote one parent in their submission. 

“With grocery prices expected to increase by $800 next year and Manitoba having the highest child poverty report, these resources are woefully insufficient,” wrote another in their account.

Foster mom, Brittany Bannerman is one of the parents speaking out. 

She says she has witnessed firsthand how chronic underfunding has eaten away at the resources available here in Manitoba, which in turn, has led to foster parents being left both physically and emotionally exhausted, some leaving the system all together.

 “Every child matters unless you are in Manitoba foster care,” she said. 

 “More and more, we are asked to be more things, and receive less supports and it’s very hard to witness and watch other families struggle,” she said.

“We have so many fantastic caregivers here in our province that want to do better by these kids. That would house more kids, that would open their homes back up, but they have been blocked due to the stagnant funding, the stagnant supports [and] due to supports just falling off the map and no longer existing,” said Bannerman, who also serves as the Foster Parent Association’s Diversity Committee chair.

Although Manitoba’s basic maintenance rate – which is used to cover the day-to-day needs of a child – saw its first increase in nearly 13 years recently in the form of a 10 per cent increase, advocates argue when it comes to additional supports like therapy, their needs often go unanswered.

“Before, again, therapy would be a given and now it’s not. They are now told to go to Jordan’s Principle, you’re on a wait list.  I had a child in my home, we were on a waitlist for 14 months.” 

“It is just a repetitive cycle that we are advocating to stop and to end for the betterment of the children,” she said. 

During a sit-down interview last week, Minister of Families Nahanni Fontaine, who was in foster care as a child, spoke of her appreciation for foster parents and the integral role they play in the lives of the nearly 7,000 in care across the province. 

After months of work behind the scenes, she was thrilled to announce last week’s raise to basic maintenance rates, and hinted that the child welfare state will look different in five  to 10-years time, with many of the issues plaguing the system being interwoven, taking time and collaboration to address.

“All of them are connected, but you have to approach them in these very methodical and strategic ways to be able to affect transformative and systemic change in child welfare,” she said.