$136M Splatsin child and family services agreement first of its kind in BC

The North Okanagan's Splatsin First Nation has inked the first agreement of its kind in British Columbia over delivery of child and family services.

Officials from the federal and provincial governments and Splatsin celebrated the signing of the first co-ordination agreement in B.C. under the Act respecting First Nations, Inuit, Métis children, youth, and families.

Over the next 10 years, the agreement will transfer $136.2 million to Splatsin to support ongoing delivery of child and family services grounded in its own culture and family systems.

Splatsin has been exercising jurisdiction and protecting children under its own bylaw since 1980 and will continue the work now with public funding.

Kukpi7 (Chief) Doug Thomas, Federal Minister of Indigenous Services Patty Hajdu, and B.C. Minister of Children and Family Development Mitzi Dean formalized the agreement Friday.

It's the first in B.C. and only the fifth of its kind in all of Canada.

The agreement addresses the "co-ordination of services, delivery of emergency services, mechanisms for First Nations children to exercise their rights, and fiscal agreements that are needs-based, sustainable and consistent with the principle of substantive equality," the three governments said in a press release.

"This high level of responsibility for our children falls not just on the shoulders of leadership, but every Splatsin community member. It takes a community to raise a child, and at Splatsin we do our best to live by those words. I raise my hands up to our community and each and every person involved in caring for our most vulnerable children and youth in the past, present and into the future," said Thomas.

The move is a step towards improving the lives of First Nation children and reducing the number who end up in government care.

"First Nations children thrive when they can stay with their families and their communities, surrounded by their culture and language. As part of the Government of Canada's commitment to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, we will continue to work towards self-determination for First Nations, Inuit and Métis," Hajdu said.

"Splatsin has always known what is best for their children and families, but decades of interference undermined culture, language and family connection... Colonial and racist policies have left decades of intergenerational trauma by pulling families apart, but today is a new chapter in our country that will help with the ongoing healing and strengthening of community for First Nations peoples."

Dean said of the agreement: "We know Splatsin have always been caring for their children, and they have worked tirelessly over the last 40 years to ensure that Splatsin children, youth and families are connected to their culture, community and laws, despite the constraints of the child welfare system. Today, we have witnessed the culmination of that work with the signing of this agreement."