National

Child welfare services fall under the mandate of provincial and territorial governments, including a rapidly expanding system of Aboriginal child welfare authorities. This section contains material related to federal initiatives concerned with child welfare services as well as statistics compiled at the national level.

All Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect reports can be found here.

Statistics

Child Maltreatment Investigations in Canada, 1998 and 2008*

  1998 2008
Child population 6,301,295 6,022,005
Number of child maltreatment investigations 134,566 235,842
Incidence of child maltreatment investigations per 1,000 children 21.36 39.16


Type of Child Maltreatment Investigation in Canada, 2008*

  Number Rate per 1,000 children Percent
Maltreatment Investigation 174,411 28.97 74%
Risk Investigation 61,431 10.19 26%


Primary Categories of Substantiated Child Maltreatment Investigations in Canada, 2008*

Category of Maltreatment Number Rate per 1,000 children Percent
Physical Abuse 17,212 2.86 20%
Sexual Abuse 2,607 0.43 3%
Neglect 28,939 4.81 34%
Emotional Maltreatment 7,423 1.23 9%
Exposure to Intimate Partner Violence 29,259 4.86 34%


Placement in Child Maltreatment Investigations in 1998 and in Child Maltrement and Risk Investigations in Canada in 2008*

  1998 Number 1998 Rate 2008 Number 2008 Rate
Informal Kinship Care 5,851 0.93 8,713 1.45
Formal Placement 11,003 1.74 10,886 1.81


Public Health Agency of Canada. (2010). Canadian incidence study of reported child abuse and neglect 2008: Major findings (p. 122). Public Health Agency of Canada. Retrieved from http://cwrp.ca/publications/2117

Publications
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Title Authors Year Sort ascending
The structure of Aboriginal child welfare in Canada

Sinha, Vandna
Kozlowski, Anna

2013
A profile of exposure to intimate partner violence investigations in the Canadian child welfare system: An examination using the 2008 Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (CIS-2008)

Lefebvre, Rachael
Van Wert, Melissa 
Black, Tara
Fallon, Barbara
Trocmé, Nico 

2013
Canadian children and youth in care: The cost of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder

Popova, Svetlana 
Lange, Shannon
Burd, Larry
Rehm, Jürgen

2013
Substantiating Neglect of First Nations and non-Aboriginal Children

Sinha, Vandna
Ellenbogen, Stephen
Trocmé, Nico

2013
Understanding the investigation-stage overrepresentation of First Nations children in the child welfare system: An analysis of the First Nations component of the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect 2008

Sinha, Vandna
Trocmé, Nico
Fallon, Barbara
MacLaurin, Bruce

2013
Jordan’s Principle: The story of Jordan River Anderson

Prepared for Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs

2013
Jordan's Principle Documentary

Produced by the Manitoba Nurses Union

2013
Multilevel correlates of behavioral resilience among children in child welfare

Bell, Tessa
Romano, Elisa
Flynn, Robert J.

2013
Identification of sexually abused female adolescents at risk for suicidal ideations: A classification and regression tree analysis

Brabant, Marie-Eve
Hébert, Martine
Chagnon, François

2013
Social needs of Aboriginal foster parents

Brown, Jason D.
Ivanova, Viktoria
Mehta, Nisha
Skrodski, Donna
Gerrits, Julie

2013
Legislation

Child welfare services fall under the jurisdiction of provincial and territorial authorities as a result each province and territory has different legislation pertaining to child protection interventions. For more information click here.

The only child welfare regulations and legislation that apply to all provinces and territories are the Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development First Nations Child and Family Services National Program Manual and the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of the Child: