Article Review: Children’s Aid Societies Seek More from Province
Summary
The Children’s Aid Societies (CAS) in Ontario require more funding in order to effectively rescue children from abusive environments. According to the article the CAS is starting to use their line of credit in order to pay the bills and it will need to lay off one-third of its staff if funding is not acquired. Although they have requested funds, the province has declined their request for more funding. The new minister of children’s services has also given no indication that CAS will be given any more money. The lawyer who chairs the board for Toronto’s Native Child and Family fears that the lack of funds will keep social workers from reaching all cases and that it might take a child’s death for them to get the additional funding from the province.
Critical Review
Is this situation a result of the government benefiting the strong at the expense of the weak of an economic recession? This is a very important question to ask and it can be answered by examining the factors surround this article. Although the former does contain some truth, the latter appears to have a better understanding of the situation.
First, the federal and provincial governments are running on a deficit. The federal deficit automatically affects all of the provinces and territories in terms of how much financial support they are going to get in the budget. The provincial deficit also means that even though the province is getting money from the federal government, it will have to be wise in how it spends and allocates the money. Second, there are many other organizations crying to the government for money. Giving money to all of them would only deepen the deficit. It is unfortunate that the CAS is low on funds but during a recession everybody is and the government cannot financially help everybody without raising taxes. Therefore, the CAS will have to find other ways to get money or wisely use what they have been given for the time being.
A Christian’s Response
As believers, we should be concerned about people in need and try to help people in abusive situations. Although the government cannot help the Children’s Aid Society, the church can by raising funds and providing homes for foster children. If the churches of Ontario rally together to help, it would be a tremendous witness to the people of this province and to the children, especially teenagers, in need of foster homes.
References
CBC News. (2009, October 14). Children’s aid societies seek more from province. CBC News-Toronto. Retrieved October 15, 2009, from http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2009/10/14/cas-budgets.html
-Andrena LeBlanc
