The government created the crisis at Brant Family and Children's Services, the government needs to fix it

HAMILTON — Monique Taylor, NDP critic for Children and Youth Services, issued the following statement after the entire Board of Directors at Brant Family and Children’s Services announced they will resign after the Ford government failed to address a deficit that is putting the children served by the organization at risk:

“Our hearts are with the children in care at Brant Family and Children’s Services — already vulnerable kids, now put at greater risk. The major problems at the Brant Family and Children’s Services were caused by the provincial government, and they need to be fixed by the provincial government. But instead of addressing the dangerous underfunding caused by the Liberals, Doug Ford is taking things from bad to worse.

Kathleen Wynne took away money from one children’s aid organization to start another rather than properly funding both – leaving Brant Family and Children’s Services in dire straits, and leaving the children they’re responsible for at risk. New Democrats raised the funding crisis atBrant’s children’s aid society with Doug Ford in March. Ford has had months to deal with this crisis, but instead of helping, he made things much worse. He made deep cuts to social services in the provincial budget, taking about $1 billion away.

It’s vulnerable children that are going to pay the price. The executive director says kids could die. He’s not exaggerating.

And since Doug Ford took away the children’s advocate, there’s nowhere for these kids to turn if they’re in danger or crisis.

Doug Ford needs to fix the funding crisis at Brant Family and Children’s Services, reverse the deep cuts he made to social services, and start giving the most vulnerable children in Brant the support they need now.”