Manitoba backtracks on new counting system for children in care

WINNIPEG – The Manitoba government is backing off planned changes to the way it counts the number of children in its care.

Last month, the province announced its calculations would no longer include kids who are voluntarily placed in care.

At the time, the government said it was simply adopting methods used by Saskatchewan and other provinces.

Family Services Minister Kerri Irvin-Ross says it turns out the government’s own research was false — other provinces include voluntary placements — so the government will not make any changes.

Manitoba has more than 10,000 children in care and almost 90 per cent are indigenous.

About 700 of those are voluntary placements.

The overall number has jumped 55 per cent since 1996 and aboriginal leaders have called on the province to find alternatives to taking kids away from their families.

“The information that we were working on was incorrect,” Irvin-Ross said Friday.

“We were trying to go for an apple-to-apple comparison (between provinces).”

The minister added there are still discrepancies between the way provinces count children in care. Some provinces use different age limits or have different definitions for voluntary placements.