Advocates warn that Manitoba’s most vulnerable children are being failed by a system meant to protect them – failures they say have been exposed by recent deaths in the province.

The last time Natalie Anderson said she saw Xavier Butler alive, it was when she was nine months old.

“Her eyes smiled when she was with me. She knew what love was. She was very loved,” Anderson told CTV News in an interview last week.

Anderson said she raised Xavia from birth for the first nine months of her life through an informal parenting arrangement with the baby’s biological mother.

“She was a beautiful, innocent and incredible child. She was very intelligent,” Anderson said.

Natalie Anderson with Xavia in an undated photo. Posted on November 1, 2024. (Natalie Anderson/Facebook)

Butler’s remains were discovered this summer in a barn near Gypsumville. Manitoba RCMP are investigating his death as a homicide, but told CTV News the CFS was not involved in his case at the time of his death. They did not want to comment further.

Xavia’s death is one of several recent child deaths in the province that are raising alarms.

“In Manitoba, every child counts, unless they are placed in a Manitoba foster family,” said Brittany Bannerman, foster parent with the Manitoba Foster Parent Association.

Bannerman called for change in the Child and Family Services (CFS) system, a system that had nearly 9,000 children in care last year, 91 per cent of whom are Indigenous.

“We’re watching children facing trauma, who are the most vulnerable children and some of the most vulnerable people in our province, failing again and again,” she said.

These failures highlighted by recent deaths, she said, such as that of Johnson Redhead, six years olda boy with complex needs who died after walking away from his school in Shamattawa.

Or the death of Myah-Lee Gratton, 17 years oldwho was killed after her mother told CTV News she notified a child welfare agency that the home she was in was unsafe.

“Until we systematically address the changes around us, the situation will not improve,” Bannerman said.

Manitoba records highest number of deaths in care since 2012, advocate says

All of this comes as Manitoba has seen the highest number of child deaths in care in more than a decade. Manitoba Child and Youth Advocate (MACY) said that in 2023/24 it had been notified of 17 deaths of children in the care of the CFS.

(Graphic source: CTV News Winnipeg)

MACY would not share the manner of death in these cases, citing confidentiality.

“The death of a child is devastating and speaks to the lack of support and resources in the system,” lawyer Sherry Gott told CTV News.

In his annual report, MACY note that when caregivers do not have access to the support they need, children’s safety can be compromised. Gott said social workers’ heavy workload is making the problem worse.

“The government needs to step up and provide these resources to these children and families. »

Caseworkers are overwhelmed, some handling 50 cases (union)

The number of CFS cases is overwhelming for social workers, Kyle Ross, president of the Manitoba General and Government Employees Union, told CTV News.

“They are overworked and they are afraid that something terrible could happen,” he said.

More than a decade ago, the final investigation report into the death of Phoenix Sinclair called for a ratio of 20 cases per social worker. The MGEU, which represents about 1,500 CFS social workers across the province, said that doesn’t always happen.

“I know in some areas the number of cases is as high as 50,” Ross said, pointing to a shortage of workers in the system. “We hear overwhelmingly that they are overworked. Their workload is too heavy. How difficult it is to keep up.

These concerns are shared by Shelley Baker, on-call dispatcher at CFS Winnipeg and president of CUPE Local 2153, which represents support workers at CFS Winnipeg.

Shelley Baker, on-call dispatcher at CFS Winnipeg and president of CUPE Local 2153, speaks with CTV News on November 6, 2024. (Source: Danton Unger/CTV News Winnipeg)

“Our system is in trouble,” she said. “Those in care have been traumatized in many ways, and we cannot always meet the higher needs and supports required due to low staffing ratios.

She said that since 2020, the average number of employees has fallen from around 600 to just over 300.

“Massive overtime eventually exhausts existing staff, and many of them look for other work,” she said.

Ross told workers he spoke with fear if something didn’t change, something would slip through the cracks.

‘$22 a day isn’t enough to pay the bills’: Manitoba has one of the lowest rates for foster parents in Canada, association says

It’s not just social workers who are feeling the pressure. Jamie Pfau, president of the Manitoba Foster Parent Association, said underfunding is leading to a lack of foster homes.

Last year, there were 6,314 children in foster homes in Manitoba, and another 2,186 children in other placements such as places of safety or staying outside the province.

The province does not track the number of licensed foster homes in the child welfare system, telling CTV News that each agency is responsible for licensing foster homes.

“We’re seeing a huge turnover of foster parents, not only because of lack of funding, but they’re also very overwhelmed,” she said.

Jamie Pfau is president of the Manitoba Foster Parent Association. (Source: Danton Unger/CTV News Winnipeg)

She showed a Auditor General’s Report 2019 which found that Manitoba offers the second lowest basic maintenance rate for children in care.

The rate, according to the report, ranges from $22.11 to $32.50 per day, knowing that the rate has not changed since 2012.

“The cost of living is much more expensive. And yes, we haven’t had a raise in over a decade just for basic maintenance,” she said. “$22 a day isn’t enough to pay the bills.”

The auditor general had recommended that the province’s Ministry of Families quickly and regularly review the base rate to ensure that it covers the costs incurred by foster parents.

A follow-up report published last year said the ministry was working on this recommendation. However, when asked about it, Manitoba Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine did not answer whether the province had revised or would update the base maintenance rate.

“The ministry funds child welfare to the tune of $420 million, and those dollars are allocated to (authorities), who then disseminate it to CFS agencies,” Fontaine told CTV News, adding that his ministry s strives to ensure that foster parents have the supports they need.

“Child protection is going to be very, very different”: the Minister of Families says changes are underway

Fontaine said his ministry is making changes to the way child welfare is applied in Manitoba.

On October 1, the province made amendments to the Child and Family Services Act to allow for customary and family custody arrangements. Fontaine said it’s the most important thing his department does.

Customary care and kinship agreements will allow children to stay with a family member rather than being apprehended in the CFS system, Fontaine said, while providing the family member with support for care and ensuring that biological parents do not lose their parental rights.

“What you then see is that more children stay with their family or in their community, which is very important,” she said, adding that this would help reduce the number of cases and the number of children placed in foster care.

Manitoba Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine speaks with CTV News Winnipeg from her office at the Manitoba Legislature on November 7, 2024. (Source: Danton Unger/CTV News Winnipeg)

The province also made changes to Manitoba’s Child and Family Services Act on Thursday with Bill 38, an amendment recognizing and giving more power to Indigenous jurisdictions.

This includes the transition of Indigenous children and families receiving Manitoba CFS services to Indigenous serving provinces. It also allows Indigenous service providers to become a judge-appointed guardian of an Indigenous child, request a child’s birth certificate, and investigate reports of a child in need of protection.

“Child welfare is going to look very, very different over the next few years,” Fontaine said.

-with files from CTV’s Will Reimer