Final 3 investigations from Ontario child advocate probe northern foster homes

The final reports from Ontario's child advocate raise concerns about the foster home system in northern Ontario.

The advocate's office was officially closed Wednesday, with investigations now being handled by the Office of the Ontario Ombudsman.

The Child and Youth Advocate office only had investigative powers for a few years and in recent weeks wrapped up its first three cases, all of which come from northern Ontario.

One followed on a complaint from a father with a daughter in the custody of the Children's Aid Society of Algoma, whose concerns investigators concluded were not founded. 

Another also involved the Algoma CAS and Summit Community Foster Care where a foster parent complained about feeling pressured to take in a child she didn't know enough about. Neither group responded to CBC's request for comment.

Investigators found that while child welfare officials were "desperate" to place the teenage boy in question, they did not intend to "coerce" the foster parent into an unsafe situation, while making some two dozen recommendations on how the provincial government could improve the system.

The third report out from the advocate deals with the conditions at foster homes in Thunder Bay, which have since been shut down. 

'Not acceptable'

Outgoing child advocate Irwin Elman says the provincial government does little to keep track of how foster homes are run. 

"There are still no standards of care for the places where children are put when we take them from their homes in order to protect them. None. I've always found that shocking. Young people have always said this is not acceptable," he says.

The Minister of Children, Community and Social Services said this week that the closing the advocate's office will bring greater oversight for the child welfare system.

But Elman disagrees.

"The minister is already responsible. The minister has oversight of these homes. The minister has the ability to create standards of care for the homes which she funds and she is in charge of. And she needs to act," he says. 

Elman says he's hopeful that the ombudsman will complete the 27 other investigations his office started, but is worried that there is no longer a provincial official whose job it is to advocate and lobby on behalf of Ontario's children.

The ombudsman already has broad investigative powers over such things as youth justice facilities and school boards, and many other provincial government bodies that deal with children," reads a statement from the Ontario ombudsman's office. 

"The ombudsman has always conducted individual and systemic investigations (and issued reports and recommendations on them), and will continue to do so in this new area."