Latest news with #SoutheastChildandFamilyServices
Global News
14-05-2025
- Global News
Family claims child welfare agency apprehended children, left them in hotel for two weeks
Five children under the age of 16 were taken from kinship care arrangements and placed in a co-ed adult wellness lodge for several days before being moved to two different Winnipeg hotels where they were left for two weeks, according to frustrated relatives. It allegedly happened at the end of March. Family members say a 15-year-old was left in charge of her siblings, age 10, seven and six, in a west Winnipeg hotel for a week then moved to a Transcona-area hotel for another week. A 13-year-old ran away from the hotel and was missing, Winnipeg police confirm. He was found safe on April 17 and is reportedly now living with a family member. Photos obtained by Global News appear to show the other children in a hotel with TV dinners, Slurpees and lice-removal kits. Global News emailed the allegations to Southeast Child and Family Services executive director Rhonda Kelly on April 16 to confirm or refute details provided by the family and requested an interview. There was no response. Story continues below advertisement View image in full screen A Winnipeg family says a child welfare agency put children in hotels for two weeks leaving them to delouse themselves. Submitted Global News spoke with two of the children's relatives who cannot be identified under the Child and Family Services Act. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy One of them says the three youngest are now together in foster care while the now-16-year old is back in the kinship care she was taken from. The relative says they've not been told why the children were removed after six years of caring for the children or if they'll be returned. Both family members say they've called and emailed Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine to intervene. 'I want to know what she's doing … to protect our children,' one says. 'What is she doing so these workers aren't given so much power over everyone else. I want answers as to why children are placed in these kinds of environments.' Story continues below advertisement Fontaine told Global News that hotel placements 'do not occur' but there are exceptions where hotels stays are permitted. 'I'm not able as Minister of Families to comment on any particular files,' the minister said. 'What I will state… is the CFS standards are clear there are no hotel placements and any hotel stays for a wide range of issues are for the shortest duration of time.' Placing children in hotels was banned by the previous NDP government in 2015 after it was revealed child welfare agencies were placing at-risk kids in hotels, often unsupervised, where many were exploited or became victims or perpetrators of crime. By 2017, the Progressive Conservative government stopped tracking if hotels were being used to house children but the policy against that remains in place.
CBC
28-03-2025
- Business
- CBC
Southeast Child and Family Services workers ratify agreement as Métis, Michif agencies continue strike
Workers with Southeast Child and Family Services have voted in favour of a new collective agreement days after two sister agencies hit the picket line calling for better wages. Members of Southeast CFS Local 395 have ratified a new collective agreement that bumps wages up to parity with other staff doing the same work in the civil service, the Manitoba Government and General Employees' Union said in a release Friday. That's four days after about 390 workers with the Métis and Michif child and family services agencies began a strike, demanding wage parity. The union says under the most recent offer, annual wages for those workers would fall from $3,800 to $5,300 behind civil service workers by the end of the proposed contract. They've been without a contract since Jan. 31, 2023. The last contract for Southeast Child and Family Services, which provides services to eight First Nations in southeastern Manitoba, expired on March 31, 2022. About 170 workers with the agency had voted in December in favour of a strike, but a tentative agreement was reached Monday, before job action began. MGEU president Kyle Ross said in the union's release that reaching the deal was a "long process," but it will make a "real difference" for workers. The new four-year contract includes wage increases in each year of the agreement, a retention step at the top of each salary schedule, and new shift and weekend premiums, as well as an increase to bereavement and family responsibility leave and wellness days, the release said. The union will continue fighting for a deal for Métis and Michif CFS workers, who also deserve wage parity, Ross said.
