A father in Saskatchewan wants answers from the province’s ministry of Social Services after it refused to return his two youngest children, even though, he and his spouse have been approved by the department to provide foster care to other children.

Larissa Burnouf

APTN National News

A father in Saskatchewan wants answers from the province’s ministry of Social Services after it refused to return his two youngest children, even though, he and his spouse have been approved by the department to provide foster care to other children.

The man who cannot be named because his children are in care of the state, lost custody of his six children in 2011, while he was away at work in Fort McMurray, Alta., for three weeks.

His late wife was having problems caring for all of them by herself.

She passed away a short time later and since then, he has managed to regain custody of his four oldest children, but not without what he said was a long, expensive fight with Social Services.

“In 2014 they started having trial dates, but from 2011 to now, I think they’ve adjourned it 50-60 times and each time they adjourn it,” he said. “It costs us $2500-3000 and that money

could have went to the kids.”

He said between the legal fees, and missed days at work to attend the court hearings, it has cost him and his family over $100,000.

He said he and his new wife have gone above and beyond what has asked of them by social services to have his six children returned.

He said they have been met with resistance from social services and the foster family of the two youngest daughters who remain in the care of the Province.

The man said they have proven to have a stable and healthy home and have even been approved to care for two other children in their home, including a new born baby.

“Ya we can look after other people’s kids but not my own!” he said.

He said his spouse has given up her job to stay home and care for the children while he works.

“I’ve been fighting for them and social services has been neglecting on everything that I have been doing right. Working and providing for my family,” he said.

His new wife said instead of paying thousands of dollars to fight social services, they could have spent that money on family.

“We don’t get to go to theme parks, we can’t take them to movies,” she said. “We cant do outings unless they’re free because any extra money that we do have or any extra money that we manage to save goes to pay off, or we give to the lawyer.”

The Provincial Ministry of Social Services would not comment on the case or confirm or deny the man’s claims.

He is now turning to the help of Northern Saskatchewan’s MLA to see if he can help in any way.

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