Province throws lifeline to FACS

The provincial government has thrown Family and Children’s Services here a financial lifeline following an announcement Monday of $26.9 million in one-time funding for the dozens of Children’s Aid Societies across the province that are facing funding shortfalls.
“The funding we received is one-time mitigation funding, and it was in the amount of about $430,000,” noted Bob McGreevy, president of the board of directors of FACS.

“We were gratified because the ministry recognizes the exceptional circumstances that we found ourselves in, and they were willing and able to provide us some financial relief.
“So we’ll be able to continue to operate for the foreseeable future, certainly to the end of this fiscal year and then in the future,” McGreevy said.
Faced with a deficit of just over $600,000 for this financial year, FACS had tapped into its $450,000 line of credit to make ends meet over the past few months at the request of the ministry, which it now will be able to repay thanks to this funding.
While FACS originally had filed for a Section 14 appeal with the ministry, which would have meant a review of their funding for this year, McGreevy said this appeal was unsuccessful as the ministry instead opted to go with this one-time mitigation funding.
“We’re still going to finish the year with a deficit,” he warned, saying that at this point FACS anticipates this deficit will be roughly $160,000.
“So we will have to continue to economize and look for ways of being more efficient while continuing to offer the services that we are obliged to provide to families and children,” McGreevy stressed.
Over the past several months, FACS has made cutbacks, such as a “no-travel” restriction on staff and no non-essential training. As well, several positions that have become vacant have not been filled.
Along with looking at internal cost-cutting, FACS is looking for external ways to save money, too.
“One of the things that we’re doing is we’re having discussions with agencies in Northwestern Ontario and looking at some partnerships or amalgamations that will, in the end, create a larger agency that is more resilient, I guess, in hard financial times,” McGreevy remarked.
As first reported by the Times back in September, McGreevy had explained FACS’s deficit arose due to several reasons, including declining provincial revenue and funding, ministry-imposed caps on “infrastructure” which affect smaller agencies, and because this year FACS has in its care children who require “expensive, intensive care in an institution.”
“Young people receiving the support and protection of Children’s Aid Societies are some of the most vulnerable children and youth in our province, and we are committed to keeping them safe,” Children and Youth Services minister Laurel Broten said Monday in making the funding announcement.
“This funding will ensure that CASs continue to provide critical services as they work with . . . my ministry to find solutions that are focused on better outcomes for kids,” she stressed.
“This support is appreciated, and will be an important step in meeting the urgent need for funding stability in child welfare,” echoed Jeanette Lewis, executive director of the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies.
Across Ontario, 49 Children’s Aid Societies are facing an overall funding shortfall of $67 million, according to the OACAS, which also noted agencies in Northern Ontario have “received some of the largest cutbacks” and are facing a collective shortfall of $16.9 million.
Meanwhile, the province is moving ahead with the “Commission to Promote Sustainable Child Welfare Works,” with the purpose to “strengthen service delivery, promote financial sustainability, and improve outcomes for the children, youth, and families who receive child protection services.”
This commission is made up of three “highly-qualified people,” explained McGreevy, who “have been travelling around the province talking to all sorts of different stakeholders, including [CASs], trying to find out what the immediate issues are and to look for ways of helping agencies . . . become sustainable over the long-term.”
“So we remain optimistic that they’ll come up with some good, innovative ideas,” McGreevy said.
“But their mandate is a three-year mandate, and so I don’t know that we’re going to have much to work with in the immediate future,” he admitted.
Of the newly-announced $26.9 million in funding, $2.5 million has been earmarked for aboriginal CASs.
As reported in the Times back in October, Weechi-it-te-win Family Services here was forecasting a deficit of $650,000.
A representative from that agency could not be reached for comment on the province’s latest funding announcement by press time.