My question is for the Minister of Children, Community and Social Services. Children’s aid societies in northeastern Ontario are in crisis due to the lack of resources. The Sudbury and Manitoulin CAS is running a deficit, despite not being allowed to do so, because their budget has been cut by half a million dollars a year. The minister wouldn’t make himself available when asked to comment on this by the media, so what will he say about this situation now that he’s here in the House?

My office hears from the local children’s aid service providers who are struggling to provide services for children in care because their budgets have been cut to the bone. Sudbury and Manitoulin CAS have no new foster families to place children with when they’re in desperate need. The head of the Nipissing and Parry Sound CAS said the following: “If we had to remove a child or children from a home, we have nowhere to put them.”

Speaker, what possible explanation does the minister have for severely cutting funds to the children’s aid societies, and what’s his next plan when a child is in crisis?