The Aboriginal Justice Inquiry - Child Welfare Initiative: Creating the Métis Child and Family Services Authority

• Author: Harvey Bostrom, Alison Rogan, and Richard Asselin
• Pages: 411-436

411

  

The Aboriginal Justice Inquiry–Child Welfare

Initiative: Cre ating th e Mé tis Child and

Family Services Authority

 ,  ,

  

A. INTRODUCTIO N

ere is no common understanding a mong Métis, federal, and provin-

cial governments on what Métis self-government means. e lack of clar-

ity as to which government has jurisdict ion and responsibility for Métis

people and uncertai nty about t he nature of Méti s Aboriginal rights fuel

this dis agreement. One t hing is certain; the uncertainty w ill prevail for

the foreseeable future.

Instead of focusing on a denition of what Métis self-government is,

what powers and responsibilities are included in it, and what entit ies hold

the ri ght of self-gov ernment, t he provinci al government has focus ed its en-

ergy on improving the well-being of Manitoba’s Métis through an evolving

process of new relationships, relationships that are oen expressed as Métis

institutions. Since the s, the Manitoba government has supported the

development of several key Métis inst itutions and devolved or delegated

the delivery of provincial programs and services; it continues to build

partnerships w ith the Manitoba Metis Federation (MMF) t hat allow it to

support the improved soci al and economic well-being of Métis i n a cultur-

ally appropriate manner. e province has supported the development of

Métis institut ions in cultural development, housing, education, economic

development, and most recently, in child and fa mily matters. Consistent-

ly, three conditions have emerged as necessary for successful institution

building: political will, strong relationships, and organizational capacity.

412  ,  ,     

is paper focuses on the processes that the government of Manitoba

used to build political w ill and relationships with the MMF and t he role

that organizationa l capacity within t he MMF played to support Métis

institution buildi ng. e processes leading up to and including the cre-

ation of the Metis Child and Family Serv ices Authority and agency will

be used to demonstrate the importance of these t hree factors.

) Change Drivers

A driver of change is a factor that has the potential to bring about sys-

temic reform. Change drivers are not simply individual champions of re-

form, but rather the interaction between st ructural features, agents, and

institutions. Structural features include natural and human resources,

economic and social structures. Agents are individuals and organiza-

tions pursuing particular interests. Institutions, which can be both for-

mal and informal, i nclude the rules str ucturing the behaviour of agents.

Links run in bot h directions between structural features and institu-

tions, as well as between institut ions and agents.

Legislation, policies, and the ways that relationships exist between or-

ganizations (and the indiv iduals representing them) and t he public they

serve make up the “institutional framework.” Actions by individuals and

organizations (agents) can a ect the institutional framework, which, in

turn, aects human and natural resources, and ec onomic and social

structures (structura l features). In the same way, structural features have

an impact on a gents in a w ay that is mediated through institutions. e

eectiveness of both the forma l rules — legislation, policies, regulations,

and so on — and informal relationships, as in levels of trust between par-

ties and reciprocity, is t herefore central to understa nding the change

processes and the impacts they w ill have.

A focus on change d irects attention to the underlying a nd longer term

factors that a ect political wi ll, relationships, and organiz ational capacity

for reform, as well as factors that aect the incentives and capacity for chan-

ges that would be likely to benet Mét is children and fa milies. It requires

that a realistic investigation of circumstances grounded in ex perience,

rather than in preconceived solutions, be the point of departure. It also re-

 Oxford Policy Manageme nt, Drivers of Change: Reect ions on Experience to Date

(Oxford: Oxford Policy Mana gement, ).