Further questions?

Interjection.

Questions?

I want to truly thank the member from Thunder Bay–Superior North for her comments and really getting into some subjects that are tough for us to discuss and really indicating where the rubber hits the road for a lot of these cases.

I mentioned I’m a scout leader on the side and the duty to report is something that I know is hammered into me as someone who is responsible for youth. Professionals in Ontario have an ongoing duty to report directly to authorities any information about a child suspected to be in need of protection, and that could include being harmed or neglected by their parents or their caregivers or suspected to be at risk of being trafficked or exploited.

And so Bill 188 does look to address this by expanding the responsibility and the obligation to apply these rules to early childhood educators and adding to the overall number of professionals that have this duty to report and are looking out for children who are at risk of being harmed.

My question to the member opposite is whether she supports having the inclusion of the early childhood educators within the auspices of the duty to report?

I appreciate the opportunity to rise this afternoon for the third reading of Bill 188. As well, I’ll be sharing my time with the member from Windsor–Tecumseh.

The Supporting Children’s Futures Act was introduced by my friend and my former colleague at the Treasury Board, and now the Minister of Children, Community and Social Services. I want to thank him and his team, including his parliamentary assistants from Thornhill and Markham–Thornhill, for all their work on this bill, including over 30 consultations right across the entire child welfare sector, including children’s aid society service providers, but also youth and families with experience in the system, from every part of Ontario.

Before I begin my remarks, I just want to take the opportunity to congratulate Sabra Desai, a registered social worker from Mississauga–Lakeshore, on winning the Attorney General’s Victim Services Award of Distinction yesterday. Sabra is chair of the board at the Gatehouse in Etobicoke, which provides support to victims of childhood sexual abuse. Many years ago, she helped to establish the Embrave Agency to End Violence in my community, which was originally known as the Interim Place. I was honoured to join the virtual awards ceremony last night. Again, I just want to congratulate Sabra and all the other award winners yesterday.

Speaker, most of the witnesses who appeared at the consultations and at the committee hearings on Bill 188 were former youth in care or people like Sabra with direct work experience in the child welfare system. As the minister said, they told us that the province needed new rules to better protect the rights of children and youth, to improve the quality of child welfare services and to hold service providers accountable for the quality of services they provide. I know that this feedback was invaluable to the minister and his team in developing Bill 188.

I also want to thank my friend from Sarnia–Lambton, who has been an incredible advocate for children and youth in care, and for the improvements to the child welfare system. I know that some of the key measures in his private member’s bill on this issue are now included in Bill 188.

Speaker, together, the measures in Bill 188 would build on all the work that we began four years ago to modernize Ontario’s child welfare system and to ensure that Ontario’s children and youth in care have all the support they need so that no one is left behind. That includes a $170-million investment in the new Ready, Set, Go Program that we launched a year ago to help connect youth who are transitioning out of care with skills they need to succeed, including post-secondary education or training in the skilled trades. Last year alone, this program supported over 4,000 youths across the province.

And it includes a new $310-million investment, as part of the 2024 budget, in community organizations that support children and youth in care, and other vulnerable Ontarians. In Peel region, it includes the Child Welfare Immigration Centre of Excellence program—the first of its kind in Canada—which helps children’s aid societies address immigration status issues for children and youth.

If passed, Bill 188 would build on that work by modernizing the Child, Youth and Family Services Act, enhancing ministry oversight and introducing new and improved enforcement tools. Because, as the minister said, while it is true that the vast majority of service providers deliver the highest-quality care for children and youth, we also have to deal with the fact that there are a few who are not acting in good faith, and others who should never have been allowed in the system in the first place.

I want to thank Carly Kalish, the executive director of Victim Services Toronto, for her recent testimony at the Standing Committee on Justice Policy in support of Bill 188, including heartbreaking stories about human trafficking of foster children in Ontario who were exploited by their own foster parents. As she said, this is a demonstration of the urgent need for reform, and there are stories like this right across Ontario, including in Mississauga, with victims as young as 13 years old.

That’s why the changes provided in Bill 188 would allow us to expand background checks beyond the formal police record checks in order to better protect children and youth in care. As well, I know that the minister is working on new regulations to standardize the requirements for police record checks across the province and to allow the college of social workers to share information with other colleges in other provinces, or with children’s aid societies, in order to confirm when a social worker is under investigation or to address any other serious risk that a child or youth may be harmed. At the same time, the bill will help restrict access to records about children and youth once they leave care in order to protect their privacy.

Bill 188 would also provide strong enforcement tools to hold bad-faith providers accountable, including new orders to comply and larger fines. In some cases, fines would increase from $5,000 to $250,000. As well, the bill would clarify that early childhood educators can be guilty of an offence if they fail to report child protection concerns to a children’s aid society. This would be similar to the rules for other professions including social workers and teachers.

I’d like to conclude by reading some of the feedback that we have received on Bill 188 from experts in the child welfare sector.

Susan Wells, the CEO of Family Service Ontario, said that Bill 188 would enhance “the safety, privacy and rights of children and youth. Family Services Ontario strongly supports this legislation for its commitment to safeguarding the well-being of our children and youth.”

John Fleming, the chair of the Ontario College of Social Workers, said Bill 188 is a “step towards” strengthening “protection for the public, including the province’s most vulnerable children and youth.”

Valerie McMurtry, president of the Children’s Aid Foundation of Canada, said, “We value the government’s commitment to making sure young people receive information on the high-quality supports that are available.”

Speaker, as I said, the voices of Ontarians with direct experience in the system have been the most important in developing Bill 188, so it is appropriate for me to close with the words of former foster child Diana Frances. She said, “Speaking from my life experience, I believe with all my heart that these improvements to the safety, well-being, and privacy of children and youth in care are of vital importance.”

Again, I want to thank the minister and his team and everyone from the child welfare sector who has come forward to share their story and their recommendations on Bill 188. This isn’t a partisan issue; it’s a looking-after-our-children issue. I also want to thank my friends from across the aisle for their remarks and for their support for this important bill.

Yes. People who have that responsibility generally do have that duty to report. Hopefully they’re being paid well enough to do their job well, but what’s missing in the bill is actually protection for parents who also report. They are kind of missing from the duty to report; in fact, they’re kind of excluded. That’s fine. But when they do report, there’s punishment happening. So they are being faced with this abuse of the Trespass to Property Act or their children are being threatened with eviction.

So there are some loopholes there where abuses are going to be able to continue to take place.

We don’t have the resources, nor should we be putting that money to line stockholders’ or shareholders’ pockets, so I absolutely would like these to have no for-profit care involved.

In addition to that, no matter how well a system of care operates, we know that we are a long way from having a well-functioning system in place, even with this bill moving significantly in that direction. Any child or youth in care has been traumatized and needs to know there is someone outside the system who is proactively listening and proactively looking out for their best interest—communication, but we need that child and youth advocate to support those kids.

It’s a long-standing problem that there are so many children who are in care who shouldn’t be in care, or who are in care but don’t have enough support or their families don’t have enough support. I’m very good friends with a kid who used to be in care. She now has three children. Well, she’s got us to help, but actually, she needs a lot more help than that. There are so many effects that have come out of colonization and those damages. There needs to be a recognition of those specific kinds of supports needed for those Indigenous kids.

Further questions?

I want to thank my colleague for really enlightening different parts of this bill.

I just want to say, given the tragic and well-documented abuses in the for-profit group homes, isn’t it long, long overdue that a government prioritizes people and the services over profit? The record of this government across the board on the matter has been very grim, and I’m sure you’ll agree.

How important is it that not-for-profit systems prioritize the well-being of our children over profits?

Before I ask my question, I just want to acknowledge that we have young people in the House here—students—who are watching the debate. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Okay. So, the member from Thunder Bay–Superior North—thank you so much for your presentation. You’ve talked about some really difficult topics, but it is something that needs to be brought to the attention of the House so that we can right these wrongs in our communities.

I know that in the member’s riding there are many Indigenous communities, First Nations groups. As we heard earlier from the member from Kiiwetinoong, the Indigenous people, First Nations people have the right to be able to determine for their own communities, especially when it comes to children, to be able to raise them in their communities and in their culture. But there are many, many challenges that they’re experiencing, particularly when dealing with children in foster care.

Could you please share your insights, based on what you see happening in your riding?

I recognize the member from Windsor–Tecumseh.

Thank you, Speaker. Certainly it’s a privilege to rise today in support of Bill 188. Even though I’m not present on the committee, certainly in reading the transcripts I certainly got the sense that there are heartbreaking stories from all across Ontario. I know many are in my own community. My constituency office certainly receives a number of them.

I’ve taken the opportunity to sit down with Derrick Drouillard, who’s the executive director of our local children’s aid society in Windsor-Essex county, and he has given me a lot to think about, a lot of feedback, particularly about the limitations that exist in the system. That’s exactly why we need to pursue a redesign of the system.

Some of the issues that have been brought to my attention locally have been a number of gaps in terms of service delivery. Organizations are doing their utmost to do what they do best, and sometimes that means that their mandates change, but, ultimately, gaps then get bigger and bigger and bigger as mandates are refined. We know we have to keep the child at the centre of everything we do. That includes safety, stability and access to the resources that can help them succeed and to thrive. Sometimes that means caring and love that they hadn’t received from others, it could be skills development, but, ultimately, we want to have a system in which a young person in Ontario knows they can achieve anything that they put their mind to. If they have a dream, they should be able to realize it.

We have so much potential in our young people, and it’s heartbreaking to see when there’s trouble at home. Actually my wife and I spoke last night—and I remember a child who was in my scout group; they actually ran into each other out in the community. She had gotten something to eat with some friends of mine, and this former youth had covered her bill. I don’t think he had ever met my wife, but he knew who she was. That’s a great youth, and it’s a youth who came from a place that I knew was difficult. His mom worked really hard to keep him on the right track, and ultimately, he developed into a remarkable young man.

This is exactly the kind of potential that exists in our youth and why the government introduced the Supporting Children’s Futures Act, which includes new and enhanced enforcement tools for those who are being victimized and those who need some support in order to get them to a place where they can look back at themselves and see the potential inside them.

I know that the changes are intended to support compliance by the different practitioners with requirements designed to protect the safety and security of children and youth in out-of-home care. In many cases, being at home is the best medicine, but there are cases when it is not. It’s not just among children and youth; I think of the victims of intimate partner violence, as an example. They should not be left with a spot where their only option is to go back to a horrible situation.

The changes in this bill also aim to protect the privacy of children. We do not want a child’s future to really be ruined or harmed by casual or careless distribution of their personal information. We want to know that their information is not going to be accessible to just about anybody. One of the great things about the information age is we can actually find out a great deal of information. Someone actually is watching us right now, and they may be screen-capping it and archiving it, and that’s a great thing to shed some light. But sometimes, there’s a need for protection.

We all have made decisions I think we’d like to change, and we also sometimes have stories that we really don’t want to have told. In cases like these involving children and youth, especially in care, it’s not their fault, but they feel it’s their fault that they’re in that situation. This can be incredibly demoralizing to them.

The measures in the bill look like—it actually opens up an opportunity to share an experience. There’s nothing better for a youth than to open up and not feel a stigma if they do and say, “You know what? It’s important that I tell my story.” Certainly, the committee heard instances in the past where youth felt that they had to keep everything quiet, even though probably the best remedy would have been daylight. So these changes as a whole are intended to better protect and support children, youth and their families and set them up for success.

Protection services are mandated and legislated under the Child, Youth and Family Services Act, 2017. They’re provided by children’s aid societies all across Ontario. I’ve got to tip my hat to everyone who’s working in this sector. I can’t even imagine how difficult it is to be knowledgeable of a situation in which you know you may not have a caring family or a family that cannot provide for the members of the family. Perhaps it’s deliberate; perhaps it’s not. But ultimately, you must get a sense of hopelessness for certain situations that you run across.

I tip my hat to the many boards of directors of children’s aid societies across the province. There are 50, and there are also 13 Indigenous children’s aid societies. I would like to give a special shout-out, should he be watching, to Adam Coates, who’s one of my former colleagues who sits on the Windsor-Essex Children’s Aid Society board. He’s a professional planner. I worked with him at the city of Windsor. The fact that he is committing his time to helping support youth in our community is truly, truly commendable.

Looking at the investments in children’s aid societies—$1.5 billion this year—it’s really a steady increase. I know we can have an amount that increases and may not see the immediate results, but the investment is worth it. And the increased investment in child protection is $14 million, approximately, and that builds on last year’s increase of $76.3 million. And there’s $109 million for children and youth services, which had been increased the year prior by $92.4 million.

And so, we have a number of practitioners in this sector. We’ve got out-of-home care for those children who are not staying at home. That includes accommodation. It could include supervision and a specialized program for special needs. I know that we have a shortage of practitioners. Parents are certainly telling me that.

We have an interesting situation down in our neck of the woods, because we have Michigan and Detroit metro just 15 minutes away. Because of that international border, even though there are practitioners able to practise, that international border is precluding us. That’s maybe one of the things I’d like to work on on a broader scale for us in border communities: that we have some access that could be out there, just in Michigan; that, perhaps, our families could have those services covered as if they were delivered by Canadian practitioners.

Care is also provided in foster homes, children’s residences and staff model homes. Previous remarks have also mentioned kin families, and certainly I’m aware of many in our community. I appreciate the government’s tremendous investment in kin families. It didn’t exist before. There are still some challenges with the set-up there, and while there are solutions, they may not always be considered to be in the best interest of the child.

Looking at Bill 188, it was developed through widespread consultation. There was lots of testimony at committee. There were 35 written submissions, 30 virtual engagements, and really, the feedback was, I’d say, positive. I see that I just have a minute and 30 left to relay a few, but just in general: “Bill 188 is a fantastic piece of legislation” was one of the items heard. “As a former youth in care, I cannot overstate” the importance of this bill.

There was comment about progress in the past, such as Ready, Set, Go; that the enhancements are key; that inspectors have increased and penalties have increased. One of the children who had been in care said one of the sections was “groundbreaking” and that the status quo had been a “stigma that young people in care are problem kids,” and this helps to address that and give hope and optimism for the future. And really, that optimism that you can be something better, something that you can dream about, is the best opportunity that we can give to our young people in Ontario.

So Bill 188 is a tremendously progressive bill that helps us get there and helps our young people who are being served by care agencies to realize the potential in themselves. It’s important they see that value. Bill 188 gets us to where they can feel that inside them. I’m delighted to support it, and I want to thank the minister for bringing it forward and the Legislature for getting this through to third reading today.

I want to thank the member for Windsor–Tecumseh for those remarks. I particularly enjoyed your comments when you were talking about the staff, and the burden on the staff when they are aware of an unsafe situation for a youth and how that must weigh on them. I completely agree. That has been my experience meeting with workers for the children’s aid society in Ottawa.

I wonder if the member could elaborate on what this House could do, empowering this legislation even more to be mindful of making sure we hold on to those talented children’s-aid-worker staff? The member for Kitchener Centre said it earlier in debate this afternoon, and she comes from this particular sector, so she should know that, at the moment, in some cases, for-profit group homes and for-profit foster homes are pulling some of the children’s aid workers, paid non-profit, publicly, out of that system, because it’s difficult to compete. It’s difficult to retain talented people.

Do you think it would make sense—my question to the member—for us to make sure that there was proper funding for children’s aid societies so they can maintain the staff, the competence they have and reward those hard-working people?

I recognize the member from Ottawa Centre.

Good afternoon, Speaker. On a point of order, please.

I was sorry to hear from the Minister of Colleges and Universities yesterday that the government does not support a return of the Child and Youth Advocate. The work being done by that advocate cannot be replaced by the Ombudsman. An ombudsman is complaint-based, and an advocate is there to be proactive.

But the implication was that with this new bill, everything would be fixed right away. So my question is, how long do you think it will take to bring staffing levels up to the point where it is actually possible to implement the programs suggested by the bill and protect the children as we know they need to be protected?

I thank the member from Ottawa Centre for his question. Certainly, one thing that I have noticed in my discussions is that staff have to feel that they’re empowered and that they’re supported. That’s a big piece of this where responsibilities are more clearly defined in this legislation in terms of your duty to report, in terms of your obligations or the expectations for the protection of young people that you work with.

So I think instilling that confidence that, “Hey, the staff are there. Their management has their back” is a terrific way—it’s just being established in this bill and reinforced in this bill. The funding has continued to increase over the last number of years while serving relatively fewer children. So we’re getting there with this bill. I see lots of hope on the horizon as a result of this bill.

That’s a $68-million program, and it helps children’s aid societies focus on helping children plan their futures at an earlier age. Basically, it allows you to remain in care until the age of 23, up from the age of 21, which was what happened before. And funding increased $850 per month to $1,800 for age 18, $1,500 for age 19 and $1,000 for age 20. So, these are some supports that can help under Ready, Set, Go. It really gives our youth an opportunity for a better path for the future.

The Ombudsman being part of the amount of information given to children and youth as an option—there’s nothing that’s brand new. That awareness is something that’s important, that they know that they have an ally in the Ontario Ombudsman that is looking out for them.

Thank you to my colleagues from Mississauga–Lakeshore and Windsor–Tecumseh for their thoughtful comments and passion about this bill. Thank you for your support. Thank you for sharing your own story about the children’s aid society in Windsor and your good friend who is managing—he was a former staff, and we’re getting all the inside information. Thank you for sharing that.

Madam Speaker, this bill is about working to fill the cracks in the foster care system and protecting our vulnerable children in our wonderful province by hiring more inspectors, conducting random inspections that never happened before and creating more accountability for licensees. My colleagues, could you elaborate on this: How are we protecting and enhancing this premise to protect our children in our foster care system?

Further questions?

Mr. Parsa has moved third reading of Bill 188, An Act to amend the Child, Youth and Family Services Act, 2017 and various other Acts. Is it the pleasure of the House that the motion carry? Carried.

Be it resolved that the bill do now pass and be entitled as in the motion.

Third reading agreed to.

Report continues in volume B.

I want to thank both government members for their presentation. As we’ve already indicated, the official opposition NDP will be supporting this bill. But I have a question around inspection, because we know that good policies can only work if they are resourced and if there is appropriate funding that goes hand in hand with it. So when it comes to inspection, what resources have been given for inspections and enforcement? Will it mean that there will be proactive inspections? How many inspectors are there now and how many do you expect to have once this bill comes into force?

I want to thank the member for that great question. Our government will do whatever it takes to protect children and youth in this province. Not only that, we are creating 20 new inspection positions. As well, we’re going to be boosting the unannounced inspections to increase transparency through the system.

I want to thank the member. We’re going to continue to protect our children, because children are very important to all of us in here, especially myself. I have two young boys, and I know how important it is to protect our children through the province of Ontario.