http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story ... lecomments

Of course someone is going to come along and say this is Whitey's fault, deflecting attention away from the real issue of children being failed at the expense of someone's greed. I've worked with Awasis, another native CFS, and these people are as uselesss as tits on a boar.....not that the CFS organizations that handle non natives are any better, but there is at least a modicum of some fiscal accountability.

Whoa there Donny...Your sarcasm is showing...lol

The scary thing is that CFS is based across the river from my hometown..

Raises at agency not my problem, Mackintosh says
By: Mary Agnes Welch

Updated: May 21 at 02:00 AM CDT

Print Article E-mail Article Senior staff and board members at a cash-strapped northern child welfare agency got retroactive raises and $2,500 bonuses while the agency scaled back its services to children, the Manitoba Tories charged Tuesday.

But Family Services Minister Gord Mackintosh said the cash used for bonuses, pay hikes and staff retreats to Niagara Falls in 2006 and 2007 appears to come from federal coffers, so it's not his problem.

"The federal minister is accountable for the flow and use of federal dollars that go directly to agencies," Mackintosh said. "The province is accountable for provincial dollars."

New documents from 2006 uncovered by the Tories show the Cree Nation Child and Family Caring Agency based in The Pas gave a three-per-cent raise to executive director Linda Constant and more than 20 other senior staff. Board members and staff also got $2,500 bonuses, according to the Tories and former Cree Nation social workers who spoke to the Free Press.

Meanwhile, Leaf Rapids saw its Cree Nation-funded friendship centre close and a social worker position there eliminated. One former staffer -- one of the three who alerted the province and the Northern Authority last summer to widespread nepotism and mismanagement at Cree Nation -- said the troubled agency clamped down on field visits to check on kids in foster care in early 2007.

Staff were also told there was no money for simple things like a decent pair of shoes for a child who turned up at the Cree Nation office in sneakers that were too small.

One former Cree Nation staffer also said some foster parents weren't receiving their fees and others had gone five months without a visit from a social worker.

Last week, the Cree Nation Child and Family Caring Agency catapulted aboriginal child welfare agencies back into the headlines. Opposition questions forced the NDP government to reveal that a Section 4 review of Cree Nation had uncovered mismanagement that left Mackintosh "out of his skin" with frustration.

The review, done by the federal government, the province and the Northern Authority, has so far raised questions about a $30,000 van that was bought for Constant and excessive travel by senior staff and the board. The board spent $217,000 in the 2006-2007 fiscal year, including retreats and conferences in Kelowna and Niagara Falls.

A final version of the review is expected to be released in the coming weeks.

The Cree Nation child welfare agency existed before the process of devolution saw the province hand over control of child welfare to 15 First Nations agencies overseen by two authorities, one in the north and one in the south.

Devolution has been fraught with controversy, and five reviews of aboriginal child welfare agencies are now underway.

Money makes the natives sooo much better now doesn't it!

Just saw on the manitoba CBC newsfeed how this agency is now in even deeper doo doo. Seems that a bunch of them took off on a tax payer funded retreat to Niagra Falls. Chartered bus tours, chartered boat tours, golf packages and massages. This cam to over $70 000.