Eight children from Nunavut placed in unlicensed group homes in Alberta
CBC
The Nunavut government placed eight children under child services care in three unlicensed group homes in Airdrie, Alta., over the last year.
According to information obtained by Radio-Canada, the company managing those homes didn't have the proper facility-based childcare licences to accept the children, and the province wasn't informed of their presence in Alberta until months after their arrival.
Nunavut regularly sends children in care who have complex needs to provinces in the south when services are not available in the territory. That can include children who experience developmental, behavioural or mental health challenges, or those who live with severe disabilities.
In this case, Alberta asserts that Nunavut didn't follow the usual procedures established in Canada for this type of interprovincial placement.
Documents obtained by Radio-Canada show that eight vulnerable children were placed in three homes managed by Ever Bright Complex Needs Support Services (Ever Bright) in Airdrie while their Alberta Children's Services permits weren't active.
Alberta's Ministry of Children's Services confirmed Ever Bright asked for their permits to be rescinded four months before the children's arrival.
Margaret Nakashuk, Nunavut's minister of Family Services, wasn't available for comment.
Her deputy minister, Yvonne Niego, said she wasn't aware Ever Bright's permits were cancelled until Radio-Canada told her about the situation Friday. A spokesperson from Alberta Children's Services wrote to Radio-Canada that information "was communicated to Nunavut multiple [times] that Ever Bright no longer held a licence with the province, and therefore child placement was unauthorized in Alberta."
Niego said measures are being taken to remove the children from the Ever Bright homes. She added inspections done by Nunavut officials in February showed no children were at immediate risk.
The executive director of Ever Bright, Bright Adelegan, confirmed Friday that seven of the eight kids were still under his care.
Adelegan founded and manages Ever Bright Complex Needs Support Services. He denies that the permits for his care homes were not valid when the young Nunavummiut arrived at his group homes.
This wasn't the first time Ever Bright hosted children from Nunavut Family Services.
Adelegan stated that he had to send a group of children back to Nunavut in Spring 2022 because he wasn't able to enrol them in a school in Alberta.
According to Alberta Child Services, that's when the office in charge of allocating licences received a request from Ever Bright to cancel its permit, as the company no longer had children under its care at the two addresses for which it had obtained a permit.