Maybe this piece is a little inside baseball but I think it’s important at this moment in Ontario that it be said. Plain and simple.
First let me write that my observations are in no way a comment on any individual. I have yet to meet anyone in “the field” or the Ministry who does not want the best for children. Maybe I think some have been and are lost but I’m sure those folks felt and feel the same about me.
For over 40 years I have watched the dance between the Government, the Ministry in charge and what we call the “child welfare” system ( from this stage on I will refer to it as the “child protection system” because that is what it is, we have no “child welfare” system)
In the last week or two the government , (the elected representatives through the Premier of Ontario), the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services (MCCSS) ( through the Assistant Deputy Minister responsible for the child protection system – there is no Deputy Minister in place) and the child protection system ( through the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies (OACAS) – more on them later) have very publicly responded to the crisis facing the child protection system and subsequently vulnerable children and families in Ontario.
There is so much to unpack.
Here are some things to know in considering what is taking place;
– Ontario is the only Province or Territory in Canada where the child protection system is operated by independent child protection agencies ( 50 in total , 36 non-Indigenous and 14 Indigenous agencies). The other child protection systems in the country are directly operated by Provincial and Territorial governments.
– Last year Ontario spent over $1.7 billion dollars in funding the child protection system
– The OACAS last year received almost $7 million in funding from the MCCSS and $4 million from its members who are the 39 non-Indigenous Children’s Aid Societies (CASs) of the Province. Funds from the MCCSS came to the OACAS in various ways to“manage the sector” and funds from its members came to lobby the government. The OACAS is a registered lobby group. Hmmmm.
In 2008 when our current government first came to power after years in opposition it really began its “child welfare redesign”. The government in naming its cabinet decided to not install a Minister of Children and Youth Services (MCYS) and moved any of the duties of that Ministry to the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services. They added “the word “children” to the name of the already massive Ministry.
At the time the Minister of MCCSS told me “ We are interested in three things. Cutting red tape. Open for business. Finding the gravy in the public sector. Irwin we may do some things about children but that is not our interest”. Yes Minister.
MCYS had been created to be responsible for the well-being of Ontario’s children and youth. It was mandated to work across government, bringing together other Ministries, with itself , in common project. To be sure it was never able to fulfill this duty. It was not given the power at the Cabinet table nor in the Ontario Public Service to do so. It really did become the tail wagging the dog . It should not have been abandoned. It should have been supported and empowered.
For decades OACAS represented the child protection system. It was an organization like many of its members that was haughty, full of itself. When criticized it recoiled in anger and self-righteousness. It lashed out. It was feared, (privately resented) in the community that is social services. Community agencies not having a legal mandate and the largesse of funding that comes with it. Community agencies not having a bat phone to the Minister and Ministry that funds them. The OACAS in its hubris held itself as the voice for children in Ontario.
It was the Youth Leaving Care Hearings that can be pointed to as a turning point for the OACAS. The Hearings in 2011 held at the Ontario Legislature by youth in and from care exploded through the narrative that the child protection system was doing just fine. “Nothing to see here. We’ve got this” the OACAS would say. The Hearings and the report “My Real Lifebook” written by young people exposed the unforgiving system that is child protection. It was when the OACAS began to change its tune saying “Life in care was no place for a child” ostensibly giving up on the lives of 8,000 – 10,000 children on any one night living under the roof of a child protection agency in Ontario. The OACAS was no longer the frightening bully it used to be.
Yet the dance between the Ministry and the OACAS continued. It continues to this day. The Ministry funding the OACAS to manage the system. When issues arise the Ministry will point to the individual Children Aid Societies and say “not us , blame them”. Then they ask and fund the OACAS to do something to make the issues go away. The OACAS accepts the funds, ineffectually addresses the issue, then blames the Ministry saying “do not blame us and the Children’s Aid Societies, It is the government to blame”. And so they dance. Stepping on each other’s toes unaware that they are dancing on the Titanic.
Then there is the government. Our government today intentionally or not has waged a war on the vulnerable children and families of Ontario. Destabilizing the child protection system with a ham handed “system redesign” which they now say has no end, all the while hollowing out every system and service meant to support vulnerable children and families. “Facts” as my teen son would say.
So when the Premier is confronted with the crisis he has created – 136 deaths of children connected to the child protection system in some way in 2022-23. Parents feeling so desperate they feel compelled to try to give up custody of their children simply to get their child the support they need. Children in care being “placed” in office space, trailers in parking lots, air bnb’s , hotel rooms. – he says “I will do an audit of the Children’s Aid Societies and find the mismanagement of public funds”. Really? That’s going to fix things?
You could not make this stuff up.
What a bloody mess!
Within the mess, however, I see opportunity. I do.
It cannot be any more clear that the dance needs to end. I have yet to meet a service provider, a front line worker, a Union, an association, an advocate, a lawyer, a psychologist, psychiatrist or other child serving professional, a young person, a parent who would not agree that what we have as a system to support our vulnerable children and families, including child protection, simply is in free fall and doesn’t work. Everyone is tired, frustrated, worn out, even traumatized and no one wants to talk anymore about what is wrong. Whatever needs to be said has been said.
We can move beyond asking, “what is the problem?” We can move to asking “what would good look like?” Once we know what good would look like we will have our “North Star” as Jennifer Charlesworth, the Representative for Children and Youth of British Columbia, calls it, in her seminal systemic investigation into child protection released in July, “Don’t Look Away”. Once we have our “North Star” we can decide how we will build it. How much more investment we will need to make? What structures and institutions will need to change and how, including change in the way the Ontario Public Service works. What ways of knowing and thinking we will need to learn, adopt and work with?
It is also clear that the MCCSS can not undertake the process of answering “what good would look like”. They are too busy dancing, As is the system itself. They should participate but they can not lead. They have too much skin in the game at this point.
What we have is our Legislature. A non-partisan, all Party, Select Committee, could be tasked to set a North Star for Ontario – A system that would ensure every child and family has what they need when they need it in order to thrive, including safety. The Committee would hold hearings. It would engage parents, children and youth. It would compel information and testimony. It would receive the Premier’s audit of Children’s Aid Societies. You do you Premier. It would accept the Ombudsman’s investigation into unlicensed placements.
The process of the Committees work would be designed in a manner to make change as it goes, to save time, to heal, using the Restorative Inquiry process pioneered out of Dalhousie University.
Don’t roll your eyes. “Another report “, you say , “that will go nowhere”. But what did my Mom tell me? “It is not your responsibility to change the world” , she said, “but you are not exempt from trying”. And what did Joan Baez say? “Action is the antidote to despair”. Lets try. Its enough.