Province promises audit of broken child welfare system 

For 16-year-old “Mia” (a pseudonym) her worst struggles were different from the high school conflicts and relationship dramas many teens deal with. Mia had to find a place to sleep each night.

On September 23rd, 2019, she and her mother got into a heated argument. Mia said her mom “flipped out” and “kicked her out,” leaving the 16-year-old, whose family had a long history with the child protection system, without a place to go. She had mostly lived with her father growing up, but that was no longer an option after she told a child protection worker with the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto that he had physically abused her. 

The next day, York Region Children’s Aid Society opened a file for Mia after her mother told York Regional Police she had alluded to having suicidal thoughts. Given her previous involvement with the system, Mia was deemed to be at high risk of potential child abandonment or caregiver/child conflict. Left without safe and permanent housing, she requested a foster placement. Despite her immediate housing crisis, York CAS proposed only one option: a bed in an emergency youth shelter. 

It was that, or live on the street. 

Despite Mia’s requests to be placed in foster care, the organization refused and instead encouraged staff to keep exploring family options. One email exchange found the organization’s Director of Service even suggested that rather than CAS providing her with funding to live in a foster home, Mia could “stay in a shelter.” The organization eventually entered into a Voluntary Youth Services Agreement (VYSA) — used to help 16- and 17-year-olds transfer to independent living, or support them in foster homes — with Mia in December 2019 which acknowledged that Mia “wanted support from the Society to assist with stability and to re-enroll in school.” Yet, despite this agreement, York CAS never offered Mia a place to live or any other support before she died suddenly in January 2020.

An investigation from Ontario Ombudsman Paul Dubé released in April 2024 found York CAS failed to respect Mia’s rights when she repeatedly asked for a foster placement before she died. While her death was not related to the services she received, the investigation uncovered several concerns in the handling of the case by CAS, including that the organization neglected to provide her with the “full range” of protection services that she was entitled to under the VYSA — a common trend that has transpired in other cases where such an agreement was involved. The Ombudsman’s Office has flagged 90 complaints to the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services about VYSAs dating back to 2019 involving 30 different CAS agencies across Ontario.

The investigation into Mia’s case by Ombudsman’s Children and Youth Unit revealed a number of disturbing findings, including CAS staff were pressured to stick to an “admission prevention” approach (avoiding putting young people in foster care), and did not fully consider her personal circumstances; there was little understanding of VYSAs and what services they include; and that staff did not consider Mia’s right to be heard or participate in the decision-making, or her specific, repeated requests for foster care. Dubé determined York CAS’s actions were “unreasonable and wrong” and made 20 recommendations to the CAS to improve staff training and the use of such agreements.

“Because her voice was never heard and her requests for services were not adequately met, Mia never had the chance to regain stability and achieve her goal of returning to high school. Although her death was not the fault of York Region Children’s Aid Society, it highlighted significant deficiencies in the steps that were taken to protect her,” Dubé stated in his report.

Cases like Mia’s is just one example of how gravely Ontario’s child welfare system is failing the province’s most vulnerable population, many of whom are suffering from harm, addiction or violence. 

It is no secret the child welfare sector is severely under-resourced, data from the Financial Accountability Office show the PC government is significantly shortchanging these organizations. Yet, as more caregivers seek support from their local CAS or child welfare agencies due to inadequate access to community-based supports, services and treatment, their pleas continue to go unnoticed by Ontario’s Premier.

When asked about the lack of access to proper support during an announcement in Durham in early August, Premier Doug Ford dodged the question, stating instead that the problem lies with the child welfare sector. In response to growing pressure from care providers and Children’s Aid Societies, Ford announced that the Province would be conducting an audit of Ontario’s child welfare system. 

“I want a full audit of the whole system and we’re going to see where some of the holes are there,” Ford told reporters during the announcement. “Last time that happened we saw there was a lot of areas of improvement. I probably get 10 to 15 calls a day on it… but we’re going to do a complete audit of the entire system because I feel we have some issues there.”

The move comes four years after the Province initiated a redesign of the system it is now auditing and reviewing — something that Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) members have criticized for the lack of “commitment” to children and families in crisis.

When asked during a recent press conference about the growing number of parents surrendering their children to the provincial government alongside the increase in young people with complex needs, Premier Doug Ford offered no details about his government’s response.

(Government of Ontario) 

Placement options for youth in crisis are becoming increasingly challenging as CAS staff, whose core mandate is to protect children from neglect and abuse, are placing more and more youth in unlicensed locations amid a critical shortage of foster homes across the province. Although these agencies have long relied on unlicensed placements as a last resort, according to several CAS agencies, since 2020, foster homes in Ontario have reduced by more than 33 percent, and financial pressures are mounting as they look for suitable arrangements outside their immediate area. This has been the case for the Nipissing Parry Sound District Children’s Aid Society, which has been paying thousands to house children outside the district. Highland Shores Children’s Aid has also reported being forced to place a youth in alternative living situations such as hotels.

Peel Children’s Aid Society also launched a recruitment campaign in January, stressing the urgent need for “foster homes for children with complex needs, teens, and sibling groups." In May, the Ontario NDP and CUPE Ontario joined together at Queen’s Park to stress just how bad the crisis had become, with youth increasingly being placed in hotel rooms and Airbnbs, and in the most extreme examples, CAS offices because no foster homes or treatment centres were available. 

“Vulnerable young people, including those with high-needs, are literally dying alone in motel rooms because there’s nowhere else to provide housing for them after this government stopped funding public group homes,” CUPE Ontario President Fred Hahn said in August. “The Conservative government is responsible for the pain and suffering endured by these innocent children. An audit will do nothing to mitigate the consequences of this government’s decisions that have led to this crisis in care.”

In response to the growing concern, the NDP tabled legislative revisions to Bill 188, also marked the Supporting Children’s Futures Act, which contained updates to the Child, Youth, and Family Services Act of 2017 that governs how Ontario’s 50 Children’s Aid Societies operate. The proposed changes, which would require the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services to increase transparency around serious occurrences and ban the use of unlicensed placements, would have addressed a crisis that has seen hundreds of children in unpredictable living situations. But the amendments were ignored and Ford’s PC government ultimately rejected the proposed solution.

Child protection workers are meant to provide services for the most vulnerable members of society, many of whom have suffered from harrowing life experiences, such as domestic violence, abandonment, or human trafficking, among others. These agencies are responsible for looking after the safety and well-being of children under their care or supervision, investigating reports of abuse or neglect, and, where necessary, taking steps to protect them. All CAS agencies are required to comply with the Child Protection Standards when providing services to children, youth and their families.

Despite this clear indication that these organizations are meant to oversee the care of youth in powerless positions, the latest annual report from the Ombudsman found that since the Province transferred investigative duties to the Office of the Ombudsman in May 2019, there has been 7,868 complaints and inquiries from children in care, concerned adults and youth justice centres as of March 31st this year. Between 2023 and 2024 alone, the Children and Youth Unit received 1,722 complaints and inquiries, compared to 1,491 the previous year. Residential licensees (group homes and foster homes) accounted for 175 cases, while 27 originated from secure treatment facilities. The majority of cases (1,451) were related to children’s aid societies.

The most common complaints documented during the review were about young people’s placements, the level of support they get from the CAS, and concerns that their rights are not being respected. 

Between 2023 and 2024, the Ombudsman’s office received 1,685 reports of death or serious bodily harm involving a child or youth who had received services from a children’s aid society within the past 12 months (these organizations and licensed residential service providers are required by law to notify the Ombudsman when they become aware of an incident). The analysis determined that the reports reflected 151 deaths and 1,358 separate incidents of bodily harm — any injury requiring treatment beyond basic first aid, any injury from physical restraint, and sexual assault — for a total of 1,509 incidents (in some cases, multiple agencies are required to submit reports about the same incident). 

It marked a decline from the previous year, which received 1,971 reports, 162 of which were about deaths and 1,809 about 1,597 separate incidents of bodily harm. 

According to the Office of the Ombudsman, in the last year, the Children and Youth Unit received 1,722 complaints and inquiries.

(Tanaphong Toochinda/Unsplash) 

A review completed by the Office of the Auditor General in 2017 on Ontario’s children’s aid found there was a dire “need to improve their adherence to protection standards to ensure that children receive appropriate care and protection.” It highlighted several key concerns, including that societies may be closing child protection cases too soon; they did not complete child protection investigations on a timely basis, and did not always complete all required investigative steps; did not always conduct timely home visits and service plan reviews in cases involving children still in the care of their family; Plans of Care — meant to address a child’s health, education, and emotional and behavioural development — were not always completed on a timely basis in cases involving children in agencies’ care, as well as other findings.

The audit revealed that in more than half the cases it reviewed that had subsequently been reopened, the circumstances and risks that triggered the need to reopen the case were still present, despite CAS closing the case. It also uncovered that none of the investigations the audit reviewed were completed within the required 20 days of the CAS receiving the report of child protection concerns. Instead, on average, investigations were completed more than seven months after receiving the report. Even more concerning: safety assessments required to identify immediate threats to the child were either not conducted on time or at all. 

The audit also found that, in more than half the child protection cases reviewed, caseworkers visited the children and their families at home only once every three months, instead of every month as required by protection standards. Societies also did not always do child protection history checks on people involved with children, increasing the risk that children are left in the care of people with histories of domestic violence or child abuse.

The Office of the Auditor General ultimately recommended that societies meet all legislative, regulatory and program requirements when delivering protection services; ensure that protection cases are not closed prematurely; assist youth to transition to independent living and adulthood; develop standard caseload benchmarks; and ensure that funding is used to appropriately to provide direct services to children and families while identifying opportunities to improve service delivery.

While neither the review from the Ontario Ombudsmen nor the Officer of the Auditor General analyzed issues within the bureaucratic systems of these organizations meant to look after the province’s most vulnerable, internal strife has been documented inside these organizations. 

Peel’s Children Aid Society has faced nearly four years of internal turmoil at the administrative level. The organization has been at the center of several scandals and has come under further scrutiny after competing lawsuits uncovered numerous damning allegations against the senior leadership at Peel CAS. While the criminal case against the organization’s former director of finance Marino Cader came to a head earlier this year after the charges were dropped due to a lack of disclosure, the disturbing wrongdoing has now shifted to a battle between an ongoing civil claim filed by Cader and a counterclaim filed against him by Peel CAS. 

The competing documents unveil several instances of wrongdoing, financial mismanagement and potential criminal activity inside the organization, which a third-party investigation previously revealed had fostered a toxic work environment and financial mismanagement under the leadership of the organization’s CEO, who discreetly left Peel CAS in December 2022 after being placed on administrative leave a year earlier. 

Peel CAS has been the subject of major scrutiny over the last four years as allegations of financial misconduct, wrongdoing at the hands of senior leadership, and potential criminal activity have surfaced.

(Alexis Wright/The Pointer) 

Peel CAS is not alone when it comes to internal issues. Sarnia-Lambton Children's Aid Society (SLCAS) is currently pursuing a lawsuit against Sarnia City Councillor Bill Dennis over social media posts that allegedly criticized the organization's recruitment efforts. Court documents allege that Dennis accused the SLCAS and its executive director Dawn Flegel of discriminatory hiring practices in posts made on his Facebook page, which referred to a recruitment notice the SLCAS posted online in May that encouraged people to apply for a child protection worker position. It specifically called on people who identify as Indigenous, Black, racialized, 2SLGBTQ+, bilingual-French speaking to apply as the organization said there is "an overrepresentation of Indigenous, Black and 2SLGBTQ+ families in the child welfare system."

The organization’s executive director said the posting was created “to address the underrepresentation of the diverse populations of children and their families served by the SLCAS," according to the lawsuit. Flegel, who says the comments were libellous, slanderous and defamatory, is seeking $100,000 in defamation damages, and has requested the court order Dennis to apologize and retract his statements.

While these institutions have come under the microscope, the lack of funding and attention from the Province has only exacerbated the growing crisis in a system that is desperately plagued by underfunding.

The executive director of the Children’s Aid Society of Ottawa (CASO) warned in June the child welfare system is “at a tipping point, and we’re in a situation where we can no longer provide the necessary care for our most vulnerable youth.” The organization urged the Province to initiate major reform of the child welfare sector as a growing number of children and youth with complex needs are unable to remain safely at home or access appropriate treatment options.

“Inadequate resources and a lack of timely support, coupled with a shortage of safe and appropriate housing options, and insufficient collaboration between sectors has left these children and youth falling through the cracks,” CASO stressed. “Some parents, overwhelmed and unable to care for their children at home due to a lack of community treatment supports, are voluntarily surrendering their children to CASO for placement, in the hope that they will receive the necessary care.”

Adding to the issue, the organization explained, is working to provide adequate care all while grappling with a persistent deficit. Boarding costs for high-risk youth — those with significant mental health and substance use challenges, or who have been diagnosed with various complex needs — that require more intensive care account for nearly 50 percent of CASO’s deficit, according to the organization. Meanwhile, these high-risk youth often do not receive the critical residential care they require. 

“This financial strain severely impacts its ability to provide essential services due to understaffing and diminished resources, and undermines its capacity to implement preventative and early intervention approaches that help children and youth remain safely at home, in their communities,” the organization warned.

A report from the Financial Accountability Office (FAO) released in June underscored just how cash-starved the province’s children’s aid sector is. The FAO’s review of the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services’ spending plan in the Province’s 2024 Ontario budget projected that the Province has allocated $3.7 billion less than required to fund existing programs and announced commitments between now and 2027. The FAO estimates funding shortfalls of $0.7 billion in 2024-25, growing to $1.2 billion in 2025-26 and $1.8 billion in 2026-27, meaning more youth will continue to fall through the cracks. 

Email: [email protected] 

Twitter: @mcpaigepeacock

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