{"id":1698,"date":"2024-08-06T09:17:55","date_gmt":"2024-08-06T14:17:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theelman.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/06\/this-is-not-about-money-this-is-about-children\/"},"modified":"2024-08-06T09:17:55","modified_gmt":"2024-08-06T14:17:55","slug":"this-is-not-about-money-this-is-about-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theelman.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/06\/this-is-not-about-money-this-is-about-children\/","title":{"rendered":"This Is Not About Money This Is About Children"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Doug Ford calls for an \u201caudit of CASs\u201d in the midst of an unprecedented crisis facing children and families. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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When the Executive Director of the Ottawa Children\u2019s Aid Society told a news conference in June that her organization and the system was at a \u201cbreaking point\u201d she was speaking a hard truth.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Director was referring to the crisis facing children living with \u201ccomplex special needs\u201d, whose parents unable to find resources to support their children were also at a \u201cbreaking point\u201d.  Parents who love their children fiercely. Parents who struggle in exhaustion to hold their families together. Parents who made had to make the horrific decision to attempt to give up custody of their child in order to obtain the resources their child needs to one day thrive.  Sadly the truth is the Children\u2019s Aid Society has no supports for these children either. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is not about funding.  This is about children.  This is about parents.  This is about family.  I cannot emphasize this more strongly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The situation in Ottawa is not isolated.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In May the Toronto Star printed a story about  14 year old Jonathan Mitkovski, an amazing young man, with incredibly dedicated parents, who had approached a Children\u2019s Aid Society to take care of their son because there was just nothing they could access in the Greater Toronto Area.  Heartbreaking.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Stop for a minute. Can you imagine what it is like for parents who dedicated themselves over 14 years to meet the needs of their child? Stressed. Worried. Broken. After 14 years of struggle and no support there.  Can you imagine how Jonathan feels?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Right now a CAS in another part of Ontario, as CUPE Ontario has told us, has an 11 year old child living in their office.  For 8 months!  You read that correctly. 8 months.  This child who is autistic and has other special needs is in care because again his parent just could not cope.  The CAS has no alternative to their office for a \u201chome\u201d for him.  This child is but one child in the agencies care who has no real \u201chome\u201d to live in<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 The situation across the Province is unbelievable really and unprecedented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Last week in answer to a question from Trillium Press about the emergency facing complex care children in Ontario the Premier stated \u201c I have called for an audit of CASs \u201c.  Seriously Premier you want to make this about money?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Child protection agencies have asked the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services (MCCSS) and the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care (MOHLTC) to come together with them as an \u201cemergency task force\u201d to in the short term find solutions for children in the midst of this crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Premier should order his Ministries to act immediately and accept this ask with open heart and mind<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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An \u201caudit\u201d is folly.  It is always punitive. It may uncover some savings but no where near the savings that would provide a financial solution.  No where near.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is not about money.  It is about children and their families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Make no mistake the issue of the needs of complex care children and the Children\u2019s Aid Societies of Ontario is but a symptom of a failing child protection system after six years of government redesign.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Premier rather than calling for an \u201caudit\u201d should be calling for the building of a new \u201cchild well being system\u201d that would ensure every child receives what they need when they need it and would ensure every family, however constituted, would have what they need when they need it to do right by their children. A \u2018child well being system\u201d as proposed by the Representative For Children and Youth of British Columbia in the report \u201cDon\u2019t Look Away\u201d https:\/\/rcybc.ca\/hfaq\/dont-look-away\/<\/a>  A child well being system that the government of British Columbia has committed to.   This is a \u201ccall\u201d the Premier could make that all of Ontario could join him in. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the Executive Director of the Ottawa Children\u2019s Aid Society told a news conference in June that her organization and the system was at a \u201cbreaking point\u201d she was speaking a hard truth.     The Director was referring to the crisis facing children living with \u201ccomplex special needs\u201d, whose parents […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theelman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theelman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theelman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theelman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theelman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theelman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1698\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theelman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theelman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theelman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}