Speaking Notes – Smokey Thomas

Press conference on funding crisis in children’s services  

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

(Check Against Delivery)

Hi, I’m Smokey Thomas, President of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union.

With me here today is:

Sid Ryan, President of the Ontario Division of the Canadian Union of Public Employees; and

Sarah Cannon, Executive Director, Parents for Children’s Mental Health.

We are here today because there is a funding crisis in children’s aid and children’s mental health which the McGuinty government is refusing to acknowledge or fix.

Thousands of vulnerable children and youth are at risk as a result.

We have all heard that Ontario’s children’s aid societies face a $67-million budget shortfall this year.

And we’ve heard the government’s response: they have tripled funding over 10 years and these are tough times for everyone.

We are here today to say: Premier Dalton McGuinty, that answer is not good enough.

Incredible as it may seem, there are children’s aid societies here in Ontario — one of the wealthiest jurisdictions on the planet as measured by income — that are facing bankruptcy and a shut-down to their services.

In York Region, layoffs are pending. Eighteen employees of the agency will be out of work January 15 if the province doesn’t come through with funding.

The loss of these supervisory and clerical staff means front-line child protection workers will have to spend more time on paperwork and less time visiting families.

Their cases will not receive the same quality of supervision as before.

Chatham-Kent Children’s Services will not be able to meet payroll past March 15.

Family and Children’s Services for the District of Rainy River, serving a vast area in northwestern Ontario and a number of high-needs children, will run out of money by the end of February, when their credit line will be exhausted.

Jeanne Sauvé Family Services in Cochrane and Kapuskasing will soon require child protection workers to take on extra responsibilities because the agency can’t afford to fill vacancies or leaves.

Child protection workers will have less time to visit families to make sure protection plans are being followed.

When I asked our members if it is an exaggeration to say that children will be hurt, as a result of the crisis, they told me: no, it isn’t.

They said it may be a shocking thing to say, but it is the truth.

In hard times, with so many families and communities suffering as a result of the recession, the demand on our community services rises.

This is the case with child welfare and protection services.

This is the case with children’s mental health services.

Three of the agencies that I referenced earlier are multiple service agencies.

In addition to providing government-mandated child welfare and protection services, they also provide children’s mental health and child development services.

These are equally important programs for ensuring a child’s healthy development. They must be funded properly.

The chronic and persistent underfunding of children’s mental health means providers can’t meet the increased demand for services in the community.

Agency budgets have been flat-lined for 14 of 16 years. The wait time to get a first appointment is five and a half months.

During the recession, referrals to agencies have increased by 35 per cent.

The fact is, children and youth in Ontario are not getting timely access to much-needed services.

Agencies lack the capacity to intervene early when problems first arise.

Left unattended, these problems only escalate and the impacts are felt in the family and the community.

That is why our four organizations – OPSEU, CUPE, the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies and Children’s Mental Health Ontario – have come together in an unprecedented joint initiative.

This Friday is National Child Day. It is the day all Canadians are supposed to celebrate the Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1989 and ratified by Canada in 1991.

The Convention says governments should protect children from harm and help them live and grow to their full potential.

This promise to our children is not being kept in Ontario.

On Friday, staff and management at our children’s aid societies and children’s mental health agencies, will wear blue ribbons and distribute special message bookmarks at outreach events in the community.

We will ask the public to tell Premier McGuinty to fix the funding crisis so vulnerable kids will be safe and get the help they need before it is too late.

Thank you very much.

I will ask Sid Ryan to speak to you now.