WINNIPEG — Manitoba is promising more help for families in danger of losing their kids to government care.
Family Services Minister Kerri Irvin-Ross says there will be a 60 per cent increase in funding for in-home support services by social workers.
The minister also says the province's independent children's advocate will be given more powers and an associate indigenous advocate will be hired.
The minister's comments come one year after the government received the final report from a $14-million inquiry into the death of Phoenix Sinclair.
The five-year-old girl spent much of her life in care and was horrifically abused after being returned to her mother Samantha Kematch (KEE'-match).
The inquiry was told Winnipeg Child and Family Services frequently lost track of the girl or closed her file, deciding she was fine, without laying eyes on her.
Kematch and her boyfriend Karl McKay managed to conceal the girl's death for nine months before they were arrested and later convicted of first-degree murder.
