$530 million settlement over children’s allowance agreed upon by Manitoba

The government of Manitoba will pay $530 million to settle three lawsuits about child welfare benefits. This should show other provinces they need to take care of these issues too.

The plan to give money to around 30,000 kids, some of whom are now grown-ups, still needs to be approved by the court. The money is meant to make up for the province taking back some of the federal payments the kids received from 2005 to 2019.

Lawsuits have also been filed in Saskatchewan and Alberta.

Elsie Flette, one of the main people suing, said on Monday that she thinks it was wrong for the province to take the money from the kids without permission or a plan. She thinks it was like stealing.

In 2005, Flette was in charge of a group that helps children when the government in Manitoba started taking away a federal benefit for kids. The money goes to organizations that help children, just like the monthly Canada Child Benefit cheques that parents get for raising their children.

The province said they were right to keep the federal money because they were using it to pay for children in their care. At the same time, more children were placed in foster care. Around 90 out of 100 kids in the system are Indigenous.

The people who brought the case said the money was meant for fun programs, arts, hockey, and other things that are not paid for with regular child welfare money.

“When a kid being taken care of by an agency needs money to visit family or take part in special events. ” Lawyer Kris Saxberg said that this money could have been used for many things for the children.

The old Progressive Conservative government stopped the clawback in 2019 but also made a bill to stop anyone from taking legal action. In 2022, a judge decided that the province was wrong to keep the money and said that the ban on legal action was not allowed.

The Tories began talking about reaching an agreement before they lost the provincial election to the New Democrats in October.

The NDP government said Monday that they are happy the disagreement is being resolved, pending approval from a judge.

“After I was elected, my most important goal was to start negotiations in a positive way and work towards making things better for children,” explained Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine.

“This is making things right. ”

More than half of the money is going to be used to pay back what was taken back over the years, as well as interest. The total amount of money given to the children also includes an additional 20 percent as a reward for treating them unfairly compared to other children.