Open Letter to the Community

On behalf of
York Region Children's Aid Society
January 5, 2010

York Region Children's Aid Society has been asked by the Ministry of Children and Youth Services to cut its budget by 12.7%.

Based on population, York Region's share of the provincial Child Welfare envelope should be about $113 million. The government wants to give York CAS $38.1 million, 15 per cent less than the requested $45.8 million and less funding than received by the agency in 2007.

We believe that, through this action, the Ministry is putting the vulnerable children of York Region at risk. More, it is creating new pressures on other social welfare and enforcement agencies in the region and mortgaging our economic and social future.

As a community, we cannot afford this funding reduction in a community where one in eight children is at increased risk because they live in poverty. Where the population increases by 35,000 each year.

York Region Children's Aid Society has worked diligently to build its capacity to the minimum required by law. It has engaged its community partners in education, policing, Violence against Women prevention, health and children's services. It has established connections to better serve the children and families of the region. It has implemented the Ministry's Transformation Agenda and put in place the cornerstones of differential response, diversity, kinship care and evidence-informed practice.

Please support York Region Children's Aid Society in its request for restoration of the required funding not only to partially redress the funding inequities that disadvantage the children of this region over others in the province but it will also allow our community to benefit from the successes of the last two years.

Please send your letters of support to the

Honourable Laurel Broten
Minister of Children and Youth Services
14th Floor, 56 Wellesley Street West
Toronto ON M5S2S3
Email:  mcsmin@mcys.gov.on.ca

Sincerely,

For more information click Ontario Child Welfare Facts About Funding