After allowing it to seemingly flounder for three or so years, the province has stepped in to save the Kawartha Haliburton Children’s Aid Society.
The Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services has stepped in and appointed a supervisor to run the agency that is headquartered in Peterborough, with offices in Lindsay and Haliburton.
They had lots to say about how they had lost confidence in the local executive and its board. They don’t think the status quo can right the operational or financial ship.
The province says it’s given KHCAS nearly $5 million more than its usual handout since 2020-21. Further, it says it’s worked with the society to address findings of various reviews. The ministry didn’t share those reviews, or findings, mind you.
Naturally, we followed up with some questions for the ministry since we’d been told the deficit was due to years of funding reductions, increased costs, increased complexity of need, and the lack of services required by legislation within the funding allocation.
We asked what the shuffling of cards means for KHCAS’ plans to close the Haliburton office and reduce staff effective April 1. The ministry did not answer the question.
We asked if they were doing the same thing with other CASs, since more than half of child welfare agencies in the province were projecting deficits at the end of last fiscal year. The ministry did not respond.
We’ve been told foster families are only getting $50-a-day per child, and that has contributed to the deficit since CASs are being forced to use outside paid resources to house children, that are largely for-profit, and licensed by the ministry. They can cost between $400 and $2,600 a day. How, we inquired, has the province not contributed to the problem?
We also got a ‘background’ on this one to school us on the fact there are two key types of out-of-home care providers in Ontario, with different funding relationships. First is a transfer payment recipient (TPR), which receives direct transfer payments from the ministry and has a contractual agreement to provide out-of-home care to young people.
The second is an outside paid resource (OPR), which enters into a contract with the caregiver or agency placing the child. OPRs include registered charities, not-for-profits, and for-profit resources which provide services like foster care. OPRs negotiate their contracts and agreements with placing agencies, such as societies. Societies are responsible for identifying a placement for a child admitted to its care that best meets the child’s needs.
We also asked them about a June report from the Financial Accountability Office (FAO) which said the Ford government is underspending on their own commitments to social services by a shocking $3.7 billion.
Their response? “The FAO’s opinions are not representative of actual government spending as they use a different methodology, including their own analysis and projections of Ontario expenses.” They then went on to tell us how much they spent according to their methodology.
Clearly not enough if what CASs are telling media is to believed. If any confidence has been lost, it’s in the Ford government.
