SASKATCHEWAN (CBC) - The federal government will dole out $105 million over five years to improve child and family services offered on Saskatchewan First Nation reserves.

The money is part of an agreement among Ottawa, the provincial government and the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl told a Regina news conference Tuesday.

Seventeen First Nation agencies that provide child and family services to the province's 70 reserves will use the money to identify and help families who are having trouble.

Earlier intervention and prevention should reduce the number of children who need to be removed from their homes and put into foster care, Strahl said.

There were more than 1,100 Saskatchewan aboriginal children in foster care as of March 2007.

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