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Marilyn Koren hugs a teddy bear that belonged to her granddaughter Delonna Sullivan, who died in foster care in 2011.AMBER BRACKEN/The Globe and Mail

Delonna Sullivan was four months and 13 days old when she was taken by Alberta child-welfare services on the morning of Tuesday, April 5, 2011. Her mother, Jamie Sullivan, said workers had papers to take children belonging to her roommate, but a mix-up led her baby into the foster-care system.

Six days later, Delonna was dead – one of 13 children to die in the foster-care system in 2011.

Since then, the number has grown. In the 2014-2015 fiscal year, a record 33 children and teenagers died while receiving child-intervention services.

But when Progressive Conservative Premier Jim Prentice's government began trimming budgets in the wake of a collapse in oil prices, the axe fell first on the agency that investigates the deaths of children in care.

Delonna's identity and those of more than 750 children who died since 1999 while receiving child services would not be known today if it weren't for a four-year investigation by the Edmonton Journal and Calgary Herald.

That award-winning Fatal Care series, published in November, 2013, revealed the full scope of the deaths and the Alberta government's failures to improve the system.

Following the investigation, the government lifted a blanket ban on identifying children who died in care. The responsibilities of the Office of the Youth and Child Advocate were also expanded, and it was given a wider mandate to investigate deaths. Five new staff members were hired, including three investigators.

Then the price of oil crashed. In February, a legislative committee dominated by the Tories voted to cut $275,000 from the advocate's office. The funds had been requested to retain the five employees hired after the public outcry from the Fatal Care series. Child and Youth Advocate Del Graff has warned that the cuts will hurt vulnerable children and that his office's recommendations would be delayed.

When MLA Genia Leskiw was asked why she moved to cut Mr. Graff's budget, her answer was curt: "I really don't believe they've sharpened their pencils." During a committee meeting, she asked if his staff would take a 5-per-cent pay cut.

Cases like Delonna Sullivan's highlight the need for a robust investigative process. Her mother, Delonna, was granted a single visit with her daughter on the Friday after she was taken. The child's grandmother, Marilyn Koren, was also there. She remembers the four-month-old was lethargic and sickly, with dark red streaks on her small head.

Ms. Sullivan asked the foster mother to bring her daughter to a doctor. She never did. According to medical records, Delonna was given cough syrup and acetaminophen the following Monday morning and put into a car seat for a nap. The foster mother didn't check on Delonna for five hours, according to the medical examiner; when she did, the baby was cold. Delonna was pronounced dead less than an hour later.

"At her four-month checkup, about two weeks prior, the doctor wrote: 'Happy, healthy baby,'" Ms. Koren said about her granddaughter from her home in Warburg, Alta. "When you have nearly one child dying weekly in care in the province of Alberta, obviously there are flaws in the system."

Responding to criticism over the funding cut, Finance Minister Robin Campbell blamed oil prices. "We cannot control the price of oil, but we can keep our spending in check. Difficult choices are being made across Government, and the Office of the Child and Youth Advocate must similarly work to prioritize front line services while minimizing administrative costs," he wrote in a letter.

Mr. Graff refused multiple requests for an interview. His office did confirm that the five additional employees have not been fired. The investigative office, though, has cancelled most travel and professional development, while abandoning plans to hire two new researchers.

In the budget tabled in late March, the Tory government chopped a further $48.9-million from child intervention programs, including cuts to family safety programs, early intervention and other outreach support.

"Of those 33 deaths, many of them were medically fragile, some were in care," Human Services Minister Heather Klimchuk told The Globe and Mail. She said the planned cuts will be made through efficiencies and will not impact front-line staff, despite Mr. Graff's warning of delayed investigations. "There are many entities that look into how children pass away. We have a number of bodies that look very closely with the ministry and justice portfolio," she added.

NDP Leader Rachel Notley, running in the May 5 election, has pledged to reverse the cuts to child intervention; she also says Mr. Graff's office should investigate all deaths in the foster-care system – the advocate's office currently only looks into a fraction of deaths.

"The PCs have been shortchanging the children's advocate for some time," Ms. Notley said. "Every incident should be fully investigated so that we can have a full picture of what's going on. We don't have that and Mr. Graff is forced to pick and choose." The Wildrose party has also pledged to reverse the cuts.

Ms. Sullivan and her mother, meanwhile, are suing the Alberta government. After four years, Ms. Koren is still angry about what happened to her granddaughter. "We want to see the people responsible for her death behind bars," she said.

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