Feds Cut Funding For On-reserve Childhood Development Programs Next Month

In just over a month, Kimberly Greyeyes may be losing a service that has helped her raise three disabled children.

“It leaves us high and dry,” said Greyeyes, who is a fulltime caregiver for her two young grandchildren. “It leaves me upset. It leaves me frustrated. This is a tough enough job as it is.”

One of Greyeye’s grandchildren has Fetal Alcohol Syndrom.. the other, autism. She also has a 14 year old son with autism. The family uses the Saskatchewan Early Childhood Intervention Program (ECIP) to help the kids reach developmental milestones like walking, talking and social behavior. Once a week, an ECIP worker visits the Greyeyes home on the Muskeg Lake First Nation – an hour and a half northwest of Prince Albert.

“My four year old Grandson was completely non-verbal. She (ECIP worker) came in and brought visuals. Visuals worked the absolute best with my grandchildren.”

The provincial government funds ECIP programs in cities and towns, but on-reserve programs are funded federally. Effective July 1, that federal funding will be cut.

“We really feel that early intervention services are something that all children should be able to access – regardless of where they live in Saskatchewan,” says Debbie Ross, the executive director of ECIP in Saskatchewan.

Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC) says that in previous years, ECIP was funded under the Social Development Program to First Nations, but in other regions of the country, Health Canada is the lead federal department supporting this client group, through the Aboriginal HeadStart program.

Greyeyes disagrees with the logic.

“They were expecting HeadStart programs to fill the gap. I’m sorry, but they were never designed to work specifically with special needs children. The people from ECIP – that’s what they do.”

About 300 kids use ECIP on-reserve in Saskatchewan. Ross says it costs less than a million dollars a year to run the program.

“The advantage of the home visit is a huge benefit. Especially to families who can’t access transportation, or who don’t regularly access more specialized services.”

If the funding is cut, on-reserve children still have the option to receive ECIP services, but would have to travel to the city for programming, or pay out pocket for home visits. Greyeyes says that would cost her $400 per month, per child.

“I do realize it’s hard for someone who has never had special needs kids to understand what this means,” she said. “We are not looking for a handout. We are trying to help ourselves. We are trying to help our children.”

In a statement sent to CTV News, AANDC said: “Protecting women and children on-reserve is a priority for the Government of Canada. We continue to invest in programs for First Nations children and families in Canada like the Enhances Approach to Child and Family Services Framework in Saskatchewan and the First Nations Child and Family Service Agencies…”