Provincial funding for children's aid not keeping up with need, union, officials, say amid layoffs

As the Windsor-Essex Children's Aid Society (WECAS) lays off more than two dozen workers due to a $10 million budget shortfall, the ministry responsible for children and social services says it has actually increased funding for the agency. 

But it's not enough to keep up with the increasingly complex needs of children in care, said the society's executive director, Derrick Drouillard.

"The government does a good job in pointing out that our volumes have dropped in the sector, so therefore, our cost should be down. And I wish it were that simple," Drouillard told CBC Radio's Windsor Morning.

"The children and youth that come into our care are considerably more complex and require higher levels of support and services than ever before."

The organization is about as lean as it can get while still delivering on its mandate, he added. 

"If we don't get some support and a change in the system... within the ministry then certainly there's vulnerabilities all around."

The union representing society staff first raised concerns last Friday about the deficit and the layoffs.  

They blamed provincial underfunding and the complex needs of kids in care, and are calling for the province to intervene with more money to stop the cuts. 

'The society is responsible for its own staffing decisions,' province says

But the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services said in a statement that all children's aid societies, including WECAS, are independent organizations run by a locally elected board of directors. 

"The society is responsible for its own staffing decisions, and this staffing change was made by the agency on their own initiative - not by the government," the statement said. 

The ministry said the government has "consistently" supported the child welfare and protection system with investments and that WECAS' funding was increased by $540,000 from 2023-24 to 2024-25.

The union's president calls that a "joke."

"We have seen stagnant funding at our agency and across the entire sector in Ontario when it comes to child welfare. Furthermore, whatever funding the government thinks it's directing our way, it's not having the impact that they think it should have," said Craig Hesman, president of CUPE Local 2286.

The union says some of the positions eliminated are in the organization's adoption department, as well as nine family service worker jobs. Also impacted is the organization's "family finder" position, which helps locate other relatives with whom to place children.

Hesman said this problem has been brewing for years. 

"We attribute the cost for that deficit to the youth that are coming into our care that have complex needs that we are not designed to provide, to the level of acute services that they require," he said.

"We're funded for protection, but we're not funded to provide residential programming at this stage for children and youth and families. So, families are at a breaking point in our community."

CBC Windsor asked the ministry for a clarification on Hesman's claims but was directed 

The Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies also declined to comment.

The ministry said that while funding for the sector in Ontario has risen nearly $129 million over the last decade, the number of children and youth in care has declined by nearly 30 percent. 

"Their argument that service volumes have decreased, therefore we need to direct less funding to this sector, unfortunately shows an ignorance of the overall problem that we're facing," Hesman said.

"If you look back in years past, we either had very minimal youth coming into our care with complex needs or none at all at times," he said. "We are now at a crisis point and that is what's driving our costs."

Windsor Morning11:14Why is WECAS in a $10 million debt and cutting staff?

There are nine children in Windsor-Essex currently living in unlicensed placements, such as hotels, according to Drouillard.

The youngest child is seven or eight years old, he said. Most are between ages of 13 and 16.

Many have significant behavioural challenges. 

Some were surrendered into care by their parents. 

This past year, the society spent more than $6 million supporting children in unlicensed placements, Drouillard said.

They account for more than 68 per cent of the organization's boarding rate cost.

The organization is working with the Maryvale children's mental health treatment centre on possible supportive housing options for some of those youth, an initiative Drouillard said he hopes to have in place by summer. 

"Of course, those aren't going to be at a neutral cost to us, but it'll be certainly more cost effective and much better outcomes than in trying to support children, youth and unlicensed placements," he said.

Ontario's ombudsman launched an independent investigation in September of last year into the practice by welfare agencies of housing children in hotels, motels, trailers and offices, and the provincial government's response to it.

"I hope it highlights the the cracks, fractures and and brokenness in the system," Drouillard said of the investigation.

"That it takes a different approach to support these children, youth in a good way and I really hope that the Ombudsman's investigation highlights the areas that needed immediate attention."

Meanwhile, the society is committed to ensuring that the staffing cuts don't affect the quality of care, Drouillard said.

Hesman said the ministry needs to provide more funding in the short term.

"In the long term, there needs to be a broader community outlook and approach to providing the services that these youth need so that they're not coming to us, an agency designed for protection care, when they're not necessarily in need of protection."

Vanessa Milley is the chief executive officer of the Foster Parent Society of Ontario.

She says she's not surprised by the cuts at WECAS.

"It's disappointing because it's a really valuable, important service the children's societies provide… But you can't do all of this without adequate funding," she said.

Milley says the diminishing number of foster parents is another concern, and that more foster parents need to have jobs in addition to fostering.  

"That's a really hard balancing act…. So we've lost foster homes to that because inflation has been really harsh lately. For other people, the demand for the role of foster parent is quite high."

Incoming kids with complex needs are also "a very relevant challenge," she said, because the assessments and support those kids need are very expensive.

Milley says her organization is asking the government to consider designated funding for assessments so it doesn't come out of the overall funding pot.