Kinship Care and Customary Care in the Northwest Territories

Across the Northwest Territories, many of the people providing the most stable care for children in difficult family situations are grandparents, aunts, uncles, and community members who stepped up because a child they knew needed someone. They are often doing this work without a licence, without a per diem, and without the formal support structure that licensed foster parents receive. If that describes your situation, you need to know what changing your status from informal caregiver to licensed kinship or customary caregiver would actually mean for you and the child you are caring for.

What Kinship Care Is in the NWT

Kinship care is the formal placement of a child with an extended family member or a person who has a significant pre-existing relationship with the child. Under the NWT Child and Family Services Act, sections 33 through 35 address intervention and priority for extended-family or home-community placement.

This priority is not accidental. It reflects the core principle that children fare better when connected to people they already know, in communities that are already familiar to them. For Indigenous children — who make up approximately 99% of the NWT's children in care — kinship placement also serves the legal requirement to consider cultural, linguistic, and spiritual ties.

A kinship caregiver in the NWT is not required to be a blood relative. A close family friend, a neighbour who has known the child since birth, or a community Elder who has a meaningful relationship with the child can qualify. What matters is the nature of the existing relationship and whether the placement serves the child's best interests.

Becoming a Licensed Kinship Caregiver

If you are currently providing informal care to a family member or community child and want to formalize that arrangement, contact your regional social services office. HSS should explain the applicable kinship or customary-care pathway, including which checks and home-safety steps apply to the specific placement.

The process can feel unnecessarily bureaucratic when you are already caring for the child in question, and that frustration is common among kinship applicants. But formal licensing matters for concrete reasons:

Access to financial support. A licensed placement may provide access to the applicable daily maintenance rate and other supports. Rates and eligibility depend on the placement; confirm them with HSS. For grandparents or aunts who have taken on a child's care without the financial resources to sustain it, financial support can be the difference between a stable placement and a crisis.

Clothing allowances and supplemental funding. Ask HSS which clothing allowance and specialized-needs supports apply to the placement and how to request them.

Role in case planning. Licensing formalizes the caregiving arrangement. Ask HSS how licensed caregivers are included in Plan of Care meetings and what information they can receive.

Stability for the child. A licensed placement is a legally documented arrangement. If the child's situation changes — if reunification with the parents becomes an option, or if permanency planning begins — your status as a licensed caregiver gives you a recognized role in those conversations.

Customary Care: The Indigenous Framework

Customary care is a distinct concept from kinship care, rooted in Indigenous law and tradition. In Indigenous communities across the NWT, the practice of children being raised by extended family or community members — according to the customs and laws of the community, not the territorial state — predates Canadian governance by millennia.

The NWT framework may operate alongside Indigenous laws and customs. Under a customary-care arrangement, the applicable Indigenous authority and HSS should explain how the arrangement is recognized and supported for that child.

The 2020 federal Bill C-92 — An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families — has significantly strengthened the legal standing of customary care by affirming the right of Indigenous governing bodies to exercise jurisdiction over child and family services under their own laws. In the NWT, this means that the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, the Tłı̨chǫ Government, the Dene Nation, and other Indigenous bodies have increasing authority to determine how customary care is structured and recognized for children from their communities.

For Inuvialuit children specifically, the Inuvialuit Qitunrariit Inuuniarnikkun Maligaksat (the Inuvialuit Family Way of Living Law) — which came into force in 2021 — supports Inuvialuit beneficiaries remaining in or returning to the Inuvialuit Settlement Region and staying connected to Inuvialuit community and culture.

What Customary Care Looks Like in Practice

A family member or community member recognized under Indigenous custom as the appropriate caregiver for a child may enter into an arrangement involving an Indigenous governing body, HSS, or both. The specific form, recognition, and financial support depend on the Indigenous governing body involved and the applicable Indigenous law, so confirm the process before relying on it.

For non-Indigenous caregivers, the Indigenous and territorial framework applicable to a particular placement should be confirmed. Non-Indigenous caregivers who are caring for an Indigenous child in a kinship capacity will still be expected to understand and support the child's customary connections — their ties to their community, language, land, and family — as part of their caregiving responsibilities.

The "Both/And" Reality

Many people providing kinship or customary care in the NWT are doing so in the "both/and" space — they are family or community members acting according to traditional obligations, but they are also operating within a territorial licensing framework that provides financial support and legal recognition. These two things are compatible and, when managed well, mutually reinforcing.

The key step for anyone in this situation is to contact their regional social services office and ask specifically about the kinship caregiver pathway — how the home study process works when a placement is already in place, and what placement-specific financial support and rates apply.

The Northwest Territories Foster Care Guide covers the kinship and customary care frameworks in NWT-specific detail, including how to approach the formal application when you are already providing care and how to navigate the intersection of Indigenous law and territorial licensing requirements.

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