Ontario’s child welfare sector has been subjected to frequent financial audits – reviews that track spending and revenues in a bid to ensure fiscal accountability. However, these audits rarely address systemic issues that directly affect the well-being of the children in the provincial system. 

Instead, the Progressive Conservative government should create a comprehensive child protection system that engages diverse communities, addresses racial inequities, strengthens regulatory mechanisms, requires public data reporting and funds wraparound social supports that prevent child maltreatment. 

The most recent provincial audit, announced in October, of 37 non-Indigenous child welfare agencies is too financially focused and misses deeper structural problems. 

For example, recent data from provincial freedom-of-information requests reveal that 354 children associated with the child welfare system died between 2020-22 – almost one death every three days.  

This illustrates the serious lack of oversight for child protective services and residential care providers such as group homes.  

Are Indigenous communities being set up to fail with the transfer of control of child welfare services? 

Transfer authority of child welfare to Indigenous communities 

Ontario’s ombudsman has detailed severe failures by some Children’s Aid Society (CAS) agencies where children such as Brandon remained in unsafe and “horrible” living situations, despite alerts from educators, doctors and caseworkers. 

A young Indigenous girl named Misty was supposed to be under the care of a private foster agency when she went missing seven times, was physically and sexually assaulted, and overdosed from drugs. This and other documented cases provide further evidence of systemic problems within child welfare.  

Disparities for Indigenous, Black and other marginalized children 

Because Indigenous-led CAS organizations are not included in the October audit, inequities affecting First Nations children – who are 3.6 times more likely to be the subject of child maltreatment-related investigations than non-Indigenous children across Canada – remain unexamined. 

The problem affects many other marginalized groups across Ontario.  

In 2018, the latest year for which data is available, Black children were disproportionately overrepresented in the province’s child welfare system – more than twice their population share.  

Also in 2018, Latin American children were 2.3 times more likely than white children to be the subject of investigations by Ontario child protective services. 

Newcomer children were also 2.8 times overrepresented in the province’s child protection services in the same year, compared to non-newcomer children. 

There has been no province-wide data on Black, Latin American and newcomer children’s representation in child welfare since research based on the 2018 Ontario Incidence Study, so it is difficult to discern the disparities that these and other identity minority populations currently experience. 

2SLGBTQ+ children and youth interactions with provincial child welfare systems remain understudied here, but U.S. data suggests overrepresentation. 

Mandatory reporting policies can prompt professionals with police and education services – two systems with histories of systemic racism – to disproportionately surveil and target racialized minority and low-income communities. 

Child protection services often lack anti-racism training, inclusive target policies, engagement from diverse communities, and effective monitoring and evaluation mechanisms. The overrepresentation of racial minority and immigrants in the child welfare system reveals not only disproportionate interventions but also inequities in how these communities experience provincial systems. 

Undelivered promises to modernize and redesign child welfare 

In 2020, the Doug Ford government announced a child welfare strategy focused on prevention and early intervention, but funding and implementation remain lacklustre at best.  

Target programs such as One Vision, One Voice, funded by the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services, have the potential to address racial disproportionalities and disparities, but there is no mechanism for mandatory implementation or enforcement measures to ensure CAS compliance.  

A policy directive requires the collection of identity-based data to increase transparency on racial and other disparities, yet the data is still (eight years later) not publicly available.  

In 2019, the Ford government also repealed the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth Act – a key child advocacy law – and transferred investigative powers but not youth-led advocacy from the dismantled Ontario Child Advocate’s Office to the provincial ombudsman’s office.  

As the ombudsman’s 2023-24 report notes, the move was made without adequate communication, misleading many children and service providers within the child welfare sector to think that there was “no longer anywhere for young people to call.” This limited children’s awareness of, and right to, access complaint mechanisms that are in place to protect them.  

The Ford government’s redesign of the child welfare system has resulted in little to no change in service delivery. Its words have not aligned with meaningful outcomes for children.  

The government needs to return to its child welfare redesign 

In October, when the provincial government announced the latest audit of child welfare in Ontario, the Ford government noted budgetary concerns, saying CAS’s child welfare expenditures have not decreased even though there are fewer children in care.  

The focus on cost reduction contradicts the preventative model outlined in 2020, which required increased upfront spending on mechanisms to prevent children from entering care, unlike the current antiquated funding model based primarily on the number of children in care. 

According to estimates by the Financial Accountability Office of Ontario, the provincial government has allocated $3.7 billion less than required to fund existing ministry programs and announced commitments for 2024-27. 

Investing in a comprehensive and inclusive child welfare system 

The Ford government should deliver on its promise of a thorough, holistic child welfare overhaul by taking several steps, including:  

• Enforce improved monitoring, evaluation and regulatory mechanisms for CAS agencies and residential care homes to increase accountability. Providers should publicly report data on children in care, child deaths and other serious occurrences. This data should be disaggregated by race and other identity characteristics to understand inequities.  

• Invest in a preventative child welfare system with wraparound services to support children and families. 

• Engage with diverse communities to address disparities. For example, partner with racialized, newcomer and Indigenous groups to identify needs, and provide target policies and supports that are culturally informed and inclusive.  

• Collaborate across sectors. An effective child welfare system also requires its various agencies to work in partnership with municipal, provincial and federal government bodies such as policing, education, health and immigration services to ensure informed approaches, and to reduce discriminatory surveillance and overreporting of racialized minority and other marginalized families. 

Ontario cannot afford to look the other way while vulnerable children slip through the cracks. Only a transparent, equitable and prevention-focused system will keep every child safe. That’s where we must invest.