| Written by Michael Swan, The Catholic Register,
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 TORONTO - The people entrusted to protect Ontario’s kids from neglect and abuse are facing a funding crisis that has them fearful their next budget cut result in another tragedy for a child.
Collectively the 53 children’s aid societies in Ontario are $67 million over budget this year and have been told not to expect the province to cover cost overruns.
Comparatively, Ontario’s two Catholic children’s aid societies, in Toronto and Hamilton, are doing well. The Toronto Catholic Children’s Aid Society is running a deficit of just under $1 million. In Hamilton the Catholic Children’s Aid Society is $170,000 in the red.
Other CASs, particularly in Northern Ontario, are in much worse financial shape. Some face shortfalls, that come to 30 per cent of their annual budgets, according to the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies.
The crisis in children’s aid began with a sudden change in provincial funding policies in June, three months into this fiscal year. It’s been compounded by the impact job losses and increased welfare numbers have had on families.
Toronto’s Catholic Children’s Aid Society saw an eight-per-cent rise in referrals in the first three months of this year.
“Across the province there are locations that are experiencing some significant increases in case load that can clearly be linked to the economic downturn and the loss of jobs,” said CCAS of Toronto executive director Mary McConville.
In the office of Children and Youth Services Minister Lauren Broten they’re not so sure the economy is increasing the workload.
“I don’t know that we have that data,” said Broten’s press secretary Paris Meilleur.
The minister has promised a commission to look into the funding formula over the next three years. Meilleur said no agency will be left unable to provide mandated services or unable to investigate allegations of abuse or neglect because they’ve run out of money.
Catholic Children’s Aid Society of Hamilton executive director Ersilia DiNardo doesn’t know how that’s possible without the end-of-year mitigation funds that have become a standard part of CAS funding.
“Everything we do is mandated,” she said. “All of our work falls from cases referred to us at intake.”
The province points out that funding for children’s aid has increased almost $1 billion in the last 10 years. Ontario budgeted $1.4 billion for CAS work in 2009-2010. The province has announced a $24.7-billion deficit in its fall fiscal update. The promised commission will have three years to figure out how to make CAS funding sustainable.
“The impression is left that the children’s aid societies simply aren’t managing their business,” said McConville. “The reality is that the increases in expenditures were very much driven by changes in government policy.”
After a number of deaths of children in care and an auditor general’s report, Ontario launched two rounds of child welfare reform in the last decade. The reforms mandated new standards for investigations into all complaints of abuse or neglect, lowered the threshold of risk and expanded the definition of a child in need of care.
When CASs set their budgets they don’t know how many investigations they will have to conduct, or how many children they will have to take into care, or the level of care those children will need, said DiNardo.
“You have your projections and you have your reality. Sometimes there’s a gap,” she said. “The ministry has a long-standing policy of mitigating that gap. This is what this year they’re not prepared to do.”
Cuts have forced McConville to slash 12 staff positions directly involved in providing services, close a home that helped teenaged girls make the transition from care to independent living, terminate three contracts with children’s mental health centres and cut drug testing costs.
“It’s always a worry when you start reducing services in any way,” said McConville.
In Hamilton, DiNardo won’t stand for any suggestion her organization has been less than frugal.
“We run a very lean organization.”
“Our regional offices are dealing with each CAS to figure out how do we get through the next year,” said Meilleur.
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Michael Swan, The Catholic Register |
| About the author: |
| Michael Swan is Associate Editor of The Catholic Register. He is an award-winning writer and photographer and holds a Master of Arts degree from New York University.
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