MPP Taylor slams Ford for inaction after 20 CAS agencies placed vulnerable youth in unlicensed hotels and Airbnbs

QUEEN’S PARK – MPP Monique Taylor (Hamilton Mountain), NDP Official Opposition critic for Children, Community, and Social Services called out Ford’s Conservatives for letting down children after new data showed 20 Children’s Aid Society (CAS) locations were forced to place children in unlicensed locations due to a lack of resources.

“What we learned today is shocking,” said Taylor. “Tonight, on the tenth annual Children and Youth in Care Day, dozens of young people in care will be going to sleep in motels, hotels, and short-term rentals because there are not enough foster beds or treatment facilities. A young person with autism will be sleeping in an agency’s office, as they have been for months. That’s unconscionable.”

This morning, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) presented the results of a survey at Queen’s Park, alongside MPP Taylor and Irwin Elman, former Ontario Child Advocate – an office that Ford eliminated in 2018.

“Our system is broken,” said Taylor. “Years of mismanagement from Ford has starved agencies of resources and forced workers to make impossible choices for care – while our children pay the price. On this Children and Youth in Care Day, I’m calling on the government to make meaningful, sustainable investments in our system. Enough is enough”.

May 14 marks the 10th Anniversary of Children and Youth in Care Day.