Children with special needs in Northern Saskatchewan could lose servicesdue to changes in Jordans Principle

The head of Children North – an Early Childhood Intervention Program (ECIP) in La Ronge – was ready to refinance her mortgage at the end of April in order to pay her staff. That’s because under new Jordan’s Principle rules, the agency  had to apply for group funding last June and it hadn’t come through yet. “They’re starting to be approved now, but the money won’t be in our account for how long? It’s just not sustainable for a non-profit to be going through things like this,” Daina Lapworth told APTN News in a recent interview. Children North provides services which help families of children up to five years of age who may have already been diagnosed with or are at risk of a disability, a delay in their development or are medically fragile. It receives $1.7 million in funding per year for its La Ronge and Saskatoon offices and another $1.2 million for the therapies it offers to children from 15 communities it serves across the north. “Across the province we are funded for 790 children on reserve but we’re actually serving 1,846,” said Lapworth. “Because even when you’re on the wait list you’re still receiving service-you can’t have a child with special needs and the family calls and says ‘what do I do?’ You can’t just leave them stuck on the wait list.” According to Lapworth, there are 14 ECIPs in Saskatchewan and 10 of them have contracts with First Nations. She said problems started in 2015, when the federal government shifted their funding source to Jordan’s Principle, requiring them to apply for funding each year. “Jordan’s Principle has never been a funding source for programming. I don’t know why we were put under Jordan’s Principle,” Lapworth said. “We were under Health Canada, and that made sense. My hope is that soon we can figure out how to get back under a permanent funding source-all of our other off reserve programs are through the Ministry of Education and we know we’re going to have funding every year.” Lapworth said ECIP programs need permanent, sustainable funding and “what we have off reserve, we should have on-reserve.” Lapworth made her case in a Power Point on what her agency does and presented it during a campaign stop by Liberal hopeful, now MP, Buckley Belanger prior to the election. In it, she said Children North provides “high quality early intervention services (that)can change a child’s developmental trajectory and improve outcomes for children, families and communities.” One of the families who benefits from the services at Children North has two autistic children under the age of eight. “If ECIP shuts down, there are no specialists north of Saskatoon,” said mother Kaylene Bell-Bagwell who is Cree and belongs to the Lac La Ronge Indian Band. The family would be forced to travel to Saskatoon for the therapies her kids need. “It’s near to impossible to get in-occupational therapists, speech language pathologists, those types of specialists we see-are booked. And we’d have to travel over four hours to get these appointments.” Bell-Bagwell feels by taking away the funding for ECIPs, the government is leaving the poorest and most vulnerable behind. “When you live in the north, we are very familiar with being left behind and ignored,” said Bagwell. “A good portion of the wealth of this province comes from northern Saskatchewan. It’s being trucked out of here in uranium, rare earth (minerals), gold-but we just are not getting the services up here.” In March, ECIPs were told that they would only have three months of funding and to transition the children to other services. But there are none, according to Lapworth. “Then, they said, if we wanted to continue providing services, we would have to do a group application. Our 10 per cent admin fees were cut April 1,” she said. Lapworth said they were facing having to fundraise to pay rent, utilities, and gas. While she said the community is generous in helping the agency, fundraising is also going on for a new long-term care facility, so many people are funneling their money to that cause. Lapworth got some breathing room when funds from one group application came through, providing funding for another 3 months. But, without a change, Lapworth said she’ll be facing the same circumstances in July. “The group application is not a good fit for core services because it is based on individual children.  If a child is referred after the application is submitted, they have to wait for services. Plus, each child needs a letter of recommendation from a medical person-the cost is $50 per letter. There is no money allotted for that,” said Lapworth. Lapworth offered other compelling numbers she had compiled when she made her Power Point presentation to Belanger. “It costs, on average, $12,000 per month or $144,000 per year to keep one child with higher needs in care. The cost is more than double for a child who is medically fragile and requires nursing support,” Lapworth said. “ECIP services for ages zero to 17 are costing the federal government $475 per month or $5,700 per year per child to keep all these children with their families by supporting the whole family unit,” she asserted. APTN reached out to Indigenous Services Canada to ask if changes to the funding model for ECIP’s are on the horizon. A spokesperson for Indigenous Services Canada said Jordan’s Principle is intended to make sure that First Nations children have substantively equal access to government services. “Canada works with provinces like Saskatchewan to ensure continuity of care for children, and we are exploring options that better support sustainability,” said Jennifer Cooper in an emailed statement. “The Government of Canada remains firmly committed to ensuring that First Nations children have access to the services they need, taking into account their distinct circumstances, experiences, and needs as First Nations children. Bell-Bagwell said one of her children will be aging out of the ECIP programming offered through Children North because the age of eligibility has been reduced to five. “I understand governments wanting to make proper financial decisions but you don’t do it on the backs of children,” said Bell-Bagwell. Continue Reading