QUEEN’S PARK – NDP Critic for Children and Youth Services Andrea Horwath demanded the McGuinty Liberals give the Ontario Ombudsman oversight of Children’s Aid Societies (CAS), in light of the Auditor general’s stinging indictment of misspent public money at children's aid societies.
“It’s appalling that CAS executives in Ontario’s four largest societies spent money on luxury cars, expensive meals and exotic trips while Ontario’s most vulnerable children were left in situations that could be dangerous to their health, their development, and even their lives. The McGuinty Liberals have failed to protect the most vulnerable children in this province by failing to provide independent oversight of CAS – and that’s unacceptable,” said Horwath.
Ontario's auditor general revealed stunning evidence of improper spending at four of Ontario’s biggest Children's Aid Societies – in Toronto, York, Peel and Thunder Bay – where public money was spend on luxury cars, personal trainers, expensive restaurant meals and exotic trips instead of helping at-risk children.
Horwath says the Auditor’s report is a stinging condemnation of the McGuinty Liberals handling of child welfare and is demanding the government to pass her private members’ bill, Ombudsman Amendment Act. If passed, the bill would allow the Ombudsman the authority to investigate systemic complaints and problems plaguing Children’s Aid Societies across Ontario. To date, the McGuinty Liberals have blocked all NDP efforts to usher in a new era of accountability in Ontario for Children’s Aid Societies.
“Nearly every province in Canada allows for independent oversight – except Ontario. The McGuinty Liberals are intent on denying children and their families this independent avenue of appeal and that’s a real problem,” Horwath said.
Horwath, the NDP Critic for Children and Youth Services, points out that Ombudsman Andre Marin himself has said in May that complaints about children’s aid societies “continue to remain immune from independent investigative oversight.”
The Ombudsmen of Canada first identified child welfare as their top investigative priority in 1986. Eight provinces now have their child welfare system accountable to an impartial legislative officer.