The Kawartha-Haliburton Youngsters’s Help Society (KHCAS) received’t say whether or not it has balanced its price range, greater than a yr after the Doug Ford authorities put in place a supervisor to “reinstate good governance and fiscal sustainability” on the society. Ontario Minister of Youngsters, Group and Social Providers Michael Parsa appointed Rosaleen Cutler to run KHCAS in October 2024, saying in a press release he didn’t “have confidence” within the society’s capability to deal with its “growing deficit and operational issues.” KHCAS’ total board of administrators resigned in response. Requested concerning the group’s price range scenario final week, KHCAS govt assistant Amy O’Connell informed Peterborough Currents by e mail that “at this time, the Kawartha-Haliburton Children’s Aid Society will not be providing information as requested.” Youngsters’s support societies are funded by taxpayers by grants from the provincial authorities. The province had insisted that KHCAS make deep spending cuts to remain inside its funding allocation, prompting the board to place ahead a three-year plan in 2024 to trim spending by $7.6 million, former vice chair Lynne Buehler informed Currents. It included the elimination of 25 workers positions. However after Cutler’s abrupt appointment as supervisor final yr, the province gave KHCAS a one-time money injection of $7.5 million, practically as a lot because the board deliberate to chop, in accordance with the group’s monetary statements for the 2024/2025 fiscal yr. “I was glad that the deficit was wiped out, but we were told that money was not available and didn’t exist and it wasn’t possible to help us,” mentioned Buehler, a retired police officer, in an interview. “So it was pretty disappointing when, shortly after the supervisor [was] installed, the entire debt was erased.” The additional funding allowed KHCAS to finish the 2024/2025 fiscal yr with a price range surplus of $906,119. The group, which serves Peterborough metropolis and county, the Metropolis of Kawartha Lakes, and Haliburton County, was additionally capable of keep away from the deliberate closure of its Haliburton workplace, in accordance with the information web site The Highlander. In an emailed assertion, the Ministry of Youngsters, Group, and Social Providers described the $7.5 million as “emergency funding” meant “to continue supporting KHCAS as the society worked towards reinstating operational sustainability.” However KHCAS remains to be grappling with monetary challenges, in accordance with Buehler. She mentioned former board members had a gathering with Cutler in July, the place they had been informed the group confronted a $1 million price range deficit for the 2025/2026 fiscal yr.
Ruby Taylor, centre, proven at a rally within the fall of 2024, was President of OPSEU Native 334, till she was laid off in September 2025. (photograph by Brett Throop)
Ruby Taylor, former president of OPSEU Native 334, which represents KHCAS workers, mentioned the price range deficit is no less than $1 million. Taylor, who had been a toddler safety employee at KHCAS for 13 years, left the group in September after accepting a layoff, she mentioned. She mentioned hers was one among roughly 28 unionized positions that has been eradicated since final yr.
Taylor mentioned the federal government’s statements have given the impression that KHCAS’ management was “mismanaging money,” however the group’s ongoing monetary difficulties present that “simply wasn’t true.”
“We believe that it was a lack of funding… that was the heart of the issue,” she mentioned.
Buehler agreed. “[We’re] no farther ahead, not one iota ahead, from where we would have been had the ministry just worked with us and … helped us through a difficult period of time and identified the underfunding,” she mentioned.
Requested concerning the price range, the ministry didn’t deny that KHCAS remains to be operating a deficit.
“Under the direction of the Supervisor, a robust plan was submitted to the ministry, with measurable objectives and timelines,” the ministry’s assertion mentioned. “Substantial progress has been made on key objectives and agency governance was returned to a newly elected Board of Directors.” KHCAS introduced it had put in place a brand new board final month, and mentioned Cutler would proceed to steer the group whereas it appears to be like for a everlasting govt director.
The ministry’s assertion reiterated that “the appointment of a supervisor at KHCAS was a necessary decision to address its growing deficit and operational issues to ensure the safety of children.” The province has offered no particulars about what these “operational issues” had been.
Currents beforehand reported that base provincial funding for KHCAS trended downward between 2017 and 2024. Throughout that interval, the province stepped in a number of occasions to get rid of price range deficits on the society, offering $4.6 million in additional funding.
Beneath its earlier management, KHCAS argued it wanted greater funding as a result of the price of inserting youngsters in group houses and foster houses was rising and extra youngsters with complicated wants had been coming into care. The CAS is one among many throughout the province that has confronted deficits lately amid rising prices and a dire scarcity of foster and group houses, which has led to some youngsters being positioned in unlicensed settings reminiscent of resorts and places of work.
However the ministry has mentioned that its spending on youngster safety has elevated province-wide lately, even whereas the variety of youngsters in care has declined.
The province introduced a overview of the kid welfare system final yr following stories about youngsters’s support societies inserting youngsters in unlicensed settings like resorts. The provincial ombudsman additionally mentioned it could examine the observe.
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